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Still no sign-up process for timberland conservation program

Posted December 03, 2007 10:00 pm

Chris Young

With less than a month to go in the year, Illinois landowners still cannot sign up for a conservation program that will let them pay reduced property taxes in exchange for managing woodlands, prairies and wetlands for wildlife.

Gov. Rod Blagojevich signed the Conservation Stewardship Law (Senate Bill 17) on Oct. 1. It was to take effect immediately, and landowners were supposed to be able to enroll while final details were hammered out.

So far, though, no proposed rules have been posted for public comment, and no sign-up is available through the Illinois Department of Natural Resources.

Landowners are concerned that the lack of a sign-up means they will pay property taxes on non-agricultural land at a much higher tax rate until the new law is implemented.

State Sen. John Jones, R-Mount Vernon, and Rep. Jim Watson, R-Jacksonville, had a letter hand-delivered to the governor's office last week asking when an application process might be in place.

"As members of the Wooded Land Task Force, we were assured by the Department of Natural Resources that once this bill became law, an electronic application process would be immediately available through the DNR Web site," they wrote.

Jones said his questions still had not been answered by mid-afternoon Monday.

"It's just disturbing that we can't get the application forms out there so people can go ahead and sign up, even without the rules," said Jones. "If people have signed up, then they can present that to their county tax assessor, and that holds off raising their taxes."

DNR spokesman Chris McCloud said the administrative rules are undergoing final review and should be posted for public comment in a couple of days. Landowners should be able to sign up before the end of the year, he said.

Timbered or other non-agricultural land, such as grasslands and wetlands, formerly were lumped in with farmland and taxed at a low rate based on soil productivity. With the explosion of interest in forested land for hunting and recreation, however, DNR sent a letter to county governments directing them to use a strict interpretation of an existing rule.

Wooded land was to be taxed at a much higher rate unless it was enrolled in a forestry program or the ratio of timber to farmland was less than half.

That meant suburban landowners, hobby farmers and hunt clubs were facing sharply rising property taxes.

Conservation groups feared landowners would log or develop their land in order to pay for the higher tax rate.

The General Assembly formed the Wooded Land Task Force to study the issue in 2006, and the Conservation Stewardship Law passed during the spring legislative session set a tax rate of 5 percent of assessed property value in exchange for landowners entering into a management plan to control invasive species and protect wildlife habitat.

"DNR has had plenty of time to get the application forms out there," said Jones. "It's very disappointing."

Chris Young can be reached at (217) 788-1528 or chris.young@sj-r.com.

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