Anyone under the 480a management plan?

[Zag]

If so just wonder your experience and if you would recommend it. Looks well worth it to me but was curious of others experience's with it. Any input would be appreciated!

[Zag]

No one has any experience with this?

[tater]

I owned a property that I had put into 480A. Its a good program if you know the goals of your property and can plan ahead because once the plan is submitted to the DEC you are pretty much locked in. It reduced my taxes significantly. I sold the property last year and the new owners took over the responsibility of following the plan. I used future forest consulting out of Naples to write my plan, they did a good job with it.

[Zag]

Thanks tater, I was looking on ffc site the other night and seem to be a good deal. We did a tsi improvement a few yrs ago on our one property so im fairly knowledgeable with it. DEC says it may or may not be very profitable Id guess it depends on the property.

[WesternNY]

Zach, I looked into and may do it in the future.   How many acres do you have that are wooded?   There are costs associated with the plan, maintenance of the plan, and work that needs to be done.  I went to my town assessor and could get a straight answer on how my assessment would change so I didn't pull the trigger.  Surprise I know the assessor wouldn't give a straight answer.

[raymerlo]

If I remember right there is a minimum of 50 acres,you need to get a certified forester to do a survey of what you have and what your goal is,timber stand improvement,wildlife habitat,

 

are you looking for marketable timber,talk to a reputable local forester

[burmjohn]

We looked into it pretty hard.  Here is the deal, once you do it your locked. Its essentially  like a contract, and understandably so because your getting a substantial discount on taxes. We did not do it (yet).  I highly suggest doing whatever modifications, logging and any other changes to your property before hand.  Once you are a part of the program you have to get approval for anything and everything. 

 

End result we hired a forrestor and we are having about 2/3 of our property selectivity logged next year. Some of that 2/3 is being hand logged, some is commercial, the other 1/3 is not ready yet.   Just be careful before you make that decision to join the program and or be logged.  Research is key.