Plumb creek land sold to Weyerhaeuser
Wisconsin
The sale of all Plumb Creek land to Weyerhaeuser has been finalized. Check out the article in the link. Sounds like Weyerhaeuser is likely to lease hunting rights. How those options conflict with the forest crop programs that Plumb creek had much of their land in may affect that. One thing is for sure, Plumb Creek was very good to allow free public hunting opportunities on their land. Weyerhaeuser is not likely to be as good. Then again, if nothing is done about the wolf's there won't be many people interested in paying to hunt it.
The DNR says the wolves chase the deer out. And that the coyotes are the ones eating deer (fawns). I have heard that from several sources. Every hunting licenses includes coyote as a possible bag. So shoot a coyote, save a fawn.
The property will still be in the MFL program and then they must leave the land open to public hunting. If Weyerhauser wants to close the land they are only allowed to put 80 acres per township in the closed program. If they chose to withdraw from the program they then would have to pay all back taxes since the property was entered into the program. They will not do that. They may close pulp roads that were once open to limit vehicle traffic.
Jaybee I sure hope your right...
How many acres do they have in Wisconsin? And where are they located? I can't find anything on their site.
Very interesting to say the least.
Not sure of the acres but they are in Washburn and Sawyer county, probably Bayfield and others. Montana and South Carolina and I think some states out east. I was going to look up their maps for WI and get redirected to Wayerheauser.
Per47, you are mostly correct but non residents have to pay big chunk of money to shoot yote and are not allowed to trap.
I guess they sold a lot of their property already according to the following article about their Wisconsin holdings. I knew they quickly sold properties with development or recreational value but had no clue they sold a lot of their harvested timber land too.
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The biggest single private buyer in the last decade was Plum Creek Timber Co., a publicly traded institutional investor (NYSE: PCL). At one time, 551,000 acres of Wisconsin trees were parked in its investment portfolios.
When trees become financial assets, they compete with other forms of investment. Global money moves with digital speed, but trees demand unusual investor patience. They pay dividends only when they are harvested, which for the fastest-growing softwood species in the upper Midwest is 25 years, quickly rising to 50 years or longer for many hardwoods.
So the money managers who hold working forests typically are expected to liquidate their land holdings after a decade or so, with no way to know whether future owners would want a stand of young growing trees, which in turn reduces the incentive to replant after a harvesting.
In Plum Creek's case, it acquired 307,000 acres from the former Consolidated Paper Inc. and 244,000 acres from the former Nekoosa Papers Inc., both powerhouse producers of publishing-grade paper in their heyday. From 2002 to 2007, no other nongovernment entity held as much land in Wisconsin as Plum Creek.
It didn't stay that way, however. Plum Creek resold its timberland, with the best prices going to tracts on streams, lakes or highways, and today holds only 11,000 acres in the state.
Asked via email about the divestitures, a spokeswoman for Plum Creek responded, "While Plum Creek has been pleased to own and manage land in Wisconsin for many years, over time, the company has focused its timberland acquisitions in places where returns for its assets are more favorable."
Plum Creek said it sold most of its Wisconsin holdings to Timber Investment Management Organizations. TIMOs, as they are known, are common in Wisconsin. They look for returns either by selling timber, selling land or holding the land as it appreciates in value. Some well-funded conservationists operate their own TIMOs as a way to preserve working forestland, but most are funds that divest their holdings after about 10 or 12 years.
I know in areas that I hunt in Bayfield they chose the best hunting valued parcels and swamp parcels "no logging" and sold them.
I bought 40 acres from plumb creek in 2008. They sold it to me because the Wisconsin MFL program changed. The new stipulation says that each parcel has to consist of 80% marketable timber. Before that change the rule was each attached tract of land or something of that nature had to be 80% marketable timber. When this changed they had to offload the more swampy bottoms that did not have that percentage. When I purchased the property I thought that I was going to have to remove it from the program because I was not sure if it would qualify. The penalty to remove from the program is to pay all back taxes since the parcel was enrolled in the program based on current tax assessment. Our township had just put an 80,000 assessment on each parcel in the MFL program since they don't need to actually view the property because it is in the program. I paid 30,000 for the parcel. I then went to the open book and had the assessment lowered to the 30,000 since this is what I paid for it. This would reduce the penalty to 3/8 of what I would have paid if I had not protested the assessment. The DNR then came out and told me that it still would qualify. I then put it in the closed program. Since Weyerhauser is in the business of making money from the sale of wood and paper products the only way I see them closing the property for hunting is if the parcels MFL programs are set to expire. If it expires soon they may clear cut the parcels right after it expires and then sell them. The reason they might wait until right after they expire is that the MFL program gets a percentage of the value of the timber they cut. The DNR usually stipulates when the parcels are to be cut but when working with big companies that have their own forester they usually let the companies forester say when it is to be cut. So I know this is long but I hope this helps some. Attached is a link to the DNR page explaining the program.
You may be able to look up the taxes on those parcels and determine what program the parcels that you are concerned about and when the were entered into the program with the attached link. The tax record doesn't usually say what year enrolled but will say enrolled before or after 2005. This was a year when the rate changed. Parcel owners can enroll in a 25 or 50 year program. The link is below.
I hunt on Plum Creek Land in Price Co. Its under the old Forest crop Law taxes less than .50 per acre. Open for most things but closed to ATV etc. Wonder what will change. Its managed by Steigerwant (SP) land Co out of Tomahawk
I just pulled up the law and it states:
"No person may lease or receive consideration (cash, goods or services) for the use of their MFL lands for a recreational activity. Landowners who have 501(c)(3) non-profit status may charge a reasonable membership fee after obtaining approval from the DNR".
So the lumber company would not be permitted to lease the land out if it's in the MFL program.
Lumber companies might have a hard time hiding informal lease payments. The forest crop land I archery hunted on for years in Buffalo county got leased to someone for cash under the table and I got the boot.
They cannot give you the boot. If it is in the MFL open program and you were able to get access legally (meaning you did not cross private land to get there) you have a legal right to be there. If they did ask you to leave call the DNR and they will contact the land owner and correct them on this issue. if they do not comply they will be removed from the program and will have to pay the penalty of paying all back taxes due. If it is the MFL closed program they have every right to deny permission. Also if it is the open program and is surrounded by private land but the owner of the open property has ownership of surrounding property that can give you access, he must allow you to cross his private land to get there. You need to notify him of your intentions to cross his closed land to get to the open land.
Jaybee-Only if the landowner has the two properties in the same ownership. For example if one is under James Smith and the other is under James and Susan Smith, they don't have to let you cross the closed MFL.
I am not 100 % positive but I think the DNR will not let them into the MFL open program if there is no access. Now that may mean you have to walk a mile through the woods. We had a neighbor that has the back of his property in the open program. The back of his open butts up to the back of ours which is closed. The lots are on opposite corners from each other. Legally we can hunt his property but we cannot come in from our side. We have to come in from his side and walk across two 40 acre lots to get to it. This is how he has kept people off of his open property. The funny part is that he has a ladder stand 10 yards from the line facing ours. If you have a particular parcel in mind call your local DNR office and they can give you more information.
I am 100% positive. This will change some with the governor's signing of the new MFL bill but as of now it's simple to have land in open MFL that is not accessible.
One might want to Google Weyerhaeuser and Oregon and Washington and see what they end up doing. Think, leases, and paying for access permits...
137 buck, hopefully the forest crop tax incentive will be enough to keep their land in Wisconsin open. Don't know if Oregon or Washington have similar programs or not.
Part of the process to get into a MFL is to have a plan on how to handle timber harvests and growth. It would be unlikely to be able to have the land in a program for 25 years and then when that program expires to clear cut it and not have to pay the state timber harvest fee. Or am I missing something? Some plans from 20 or more years ago might have been purposely vague.
Once the plan expires, the DNR has no input on the management. They only control the management prescribed in the plan during the 25 or 50 year agreement.
