We recently had the pleasure of meeting with Congressman Tom Reed, the US representative of the 23rd Congressional District of New York covering most of the Southern Tier. Congressman Reed and his District Director, Joe Sempolinski, were kind enough to visit with us at our corporate offices in Falconer, NY and spent the good part of an afternoon talking with us about FORECON, Inc. and the services we provide to landowners. Congressman Reed was particularly interested in the concerns that our landowners have, especially in light of our managing the woodlots and forests that they own. That provided us a chance to discuss the ever-increasing tax burdens on New York landowners in particular, as well as other environmental issues that have had (or could have) a large impact on the forest industry here. Besides property taxes and inheritance tax issues, we also talked about the oil and gas fracking ban in New York, as well as the effects that forest pests such as the emerald ash borer (EAB) and the hemlock woolly adelgid (HWA) have on the timber resources in this area of the state.
We found both Congressman Reed and Mr. Sempolinski genuinely eager to learn about forestry issues that impact the landowners in the district, and also realized how passionate the Congressman is about private property rights in general. Mr. Reed recognizes the fundamental importance of protecting private property rights, and has formed and is the Chairman of the Private Property Rights Caucus in the US House of Representatives, pulling together legislators on both sides of the aisle to identify and address the adverse effects government action can have on private ownership, and to “discuss practical solutions to protect the constitutional rights of property owners.” The Congressman also introduced H.R. 510, known as the Defense of Property Rights Act, in January of 2015 with the intention of “creating a safeguard against unfair and unreasonable government actions that violate (private landowner) property rights.”
FORECON’s relationships with forest landowners of all types and sizes encourage us to stay on top of the issues that affect our clients, in turn making it important for us to stay in touch with our government representatives who can affect our collective livelihoods. That, coupled with our involvement in groups like the Forest Landowners Association (www.forestlandowners.com) and the Association of Consulting Foresters (www.acf-foresters.org) gives our company and our clients a voice in the matters that affect private forest landowners throughout our operating area. We will continue to stay involved with the issues that affect forest landowners, and bring you any updates as we get them.
Read the FORECON press release here.
