Why It Matters: Sustainable forest management creates quality habitat for wildlife and helps prevent the conversion of forests to other land uses, and the Disaster Reforestation Act offers support for forest landowners after a natural disaster to help them maintain the economic viability of managing their land as forests. As development pressures increase on landowners and insects, disease, fires, and other natural disasters increasingly destroy timber, it is important to provide landowners with financial tools to mitigate their losses. The Disaster Reforestation Act allows landowners to deduct the value of timber lost from disasters which is critical for supporting the private working forests throughout the country that sportsmen and women depend on for access.
Highlights:
- Updating the tax code to support forest landowners after a natural disaster is a priority for the forestry community to ensure that working forests remain as forests.
- The legislation requires landowners who utilize the casualty loss deduction to reforest their property within five years to prevent the land being converted to non-forest uses.
- Working forests are managed sustainably to provide a renewable supply of wood for a variety of uses while providing habitat for fish and wildlife and places for sportsmen and women to recreate.
Recently, Congressional Sportsmen’s Caucus (CSC) Member Representative Buddy Carter and Representative Terri Sewell reintroduced the Disaster Reforestation Act (H.R. 262) which would provide tax relief to private forest landowners for timber losses caused by natural disasters. The Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation (CSF) supports the legislation and joined forest conservation partners to endorse the bill. In the 118th Congress, the Disaster Reforestation Act (H.R. 655/S. 217) had strong bipartisan support, but the bills did not advance in either chamber.
Specifically, the Disaster Reforestation Act would amend the tax code to allow forest landowners to deduct the fair market value of uncut timber damaged by fire, storm, insects, or other casualties when calculating casualty losses. While there is no federal insurance program for forest landowners like the federal crop insurance program for most agricultural commodities, the legislation would help provide equity for forest landowners by updating the adjusted cost basis limitation on timber casualty loss deductions.
CSF appreciates the leadership of Representatives Carter and Sewell on this important issue for forest landowners and the sportsmen’s community. The Disaster Reforestation Act’s improvement to the tax code would support keeping working forests as forests which is crucial for fish and wildlife habitat and access for sportsmen and women. CSF is excited to work with the CSC and forest industry partners to support the bill.
