I find it fascinating that corporate welfare in any form continues to be supported. 'Undeveloped' land is 'undeveloped' land - it ought to be taxed in the same manner regardless of who owns it.

The Copper Country is an excellent example of what corporations, left unchecked, will do to the land. The New Englanders came, raped the land, and ran for the door when the copper ran dry. The miles of 'stamp sand' beaches in Gay, Baraga, and Houghton/Hancock are huge quantities of heavy metal-containing industrial waste that the corporations of their day found acceptable to dump into Lake Superior. The assumption that it would just go away has not come true, and it remains for the next generation (or the one after that) to clean up the mess.

Corporations that deal in timber will probably not be better stewards of the land. Their damage will be manifested differently, but their focus is also on profitability. The approach doesn't warrant a tax break, IMHO.

So much has been heard, of late, from the birds regarding the CFR tax rate.
And before the situation gets quite out-of-hand, I feel obligated to join the fray and set things right.
#1: The birds, it should be obvious to all, are not educated in the tax laws of this state. They are not qualified to speak on tax matters. They have no idea where the other half of the CFR tax dollar comes from and they obviously have not bothered to discover where the state portion of the CFR tax is derived.
#2: Have the birds thought this matter through as any well educated and erudite scholar would have done? I think not. In this case, ridicule and pedantic snobbery will serve quite well when I say that the birds have neither the education nor a list of scholarly achievements to their credit that people might listen to them. I liken them to a clanging cymbal, out of synch and out of harmony.
#3: Which explains why nobody has joined their petty call for an increase in the CFR tax rate. By now, it should be obvious that the majority of people are glad to give the corporate owners of the land of the Copper Country free rein to do as they please, when they please, for as long as they please because "access" to the land is important, far more important than the issue of whether or not CFR owners have seen a tax increase to support new school buildings in Houghton, Hancock, Calumet, Lake Linden, Dollar Bay, Chassell, Painesdale, L'Anse, Baraga, Ontanagon, Ewen-Trout Creek, White Pine, Marquette, Ispheming, Negaunee, Menominee, Iron Mountin, etc.
If the birds wish to ask for an increase in taxes, they should begin to seek raises in property taxes in their communities. Raise taxes there, first, before they try to raise the taxes on a company head-quartered in New England. For it was New Englanders who made the Copper Country great and put it on the map.
Hail, hail, New Englanders who find their wealth here and don't pay taxes to support the local schools.

Sincerely,
The Highly Educated Professors (And therefor we know of what we speak)
Farley Facts & Emit Notorious

NEWS FLASH!
Lake Superior Land Company has been listed in the phone book under REAL ESTATE for years and years.

I was trespassing recently on the FOLK website and I came across the following in their NOV/DEC, 2000 newsletter, some information regarding the Public Access Keweenaw meeting on the 4th of DEC at the theatre in Calumet. One phrase that drew my attention had to do with CFR and FOLK's interpretation of it:

a state-run program that gives large forestland owners tax
breaks in exchange for allowing public access for activities such as
hiking, hunting and fishing.

Snowmobilers, ORV users, fishers, campers, agate
pickers, bird watchers and more users depend on the lack of "No
Trespassing" signs on IP's current land holdings.

While I listened to the various speakers on stage, I heard the one fellow from the DNR clearly state that CFR owners are required to allow only hunting and fishing. I didn't hear anything about "hiking".

A small issue? Maybe. Maybe not.

I suppose when you have endless waves of grain or acres and acres of trees, that must be open to the public, right, cause there are no "no trespassing" signs around, and if the woods are owned by someone else, he will not see me stopping here to watch his woods fill up with snow, then how is anyone going to convince the majority of the local people that public access isn't a given? And if the ones who show up are the ones who call the shots, how do you convince local taxpayers that a CFR tax-rate increase is in order? Don't bite the corporate hand that is grabbing what it can, while it can, cause then public access might be harder to come by, or maybe someone would try to enforce the CFR access regulations/laws. Don't try to ask for a CFR tax increase cause then the big boyga might sell his land and go to another neighborhood.

Acres and acres of corporate land have sold to another party in the last ten years and more. Every two lane blacktop in the Copper Country leads to the suburbs of the Copper Country where private 40-acre yards are safe from the world-at-large and nosy neighbors (and from friendly neighbors as well). Acres and acres and acres of corporate land have been taxed at an incredibly low rate for years and years and years. One corporation makes money from the land and from the ground below the top and then sells. Another corporation makes money from the produce of the land above the ground, begins to reach the point where logging will need to slow, begins to ask for a land swap (probably because the timber industry doesn't think that state-owned lands have enough acres open to logging each year), and this corporation is bought by another corporation.

And then we have a growing number of people who are concerned with public access who will push for the next land swap (and one will surely be offered--logging will need to slow in K County and the state doesn't open enough acres to private logging in the timber industry's view).

So while you kiss the corporate a_s to gain some public ground, take a bite as well and raise the CFR tax rate. Everyone else has seen a tax increase to support out schools.

Begone El Nino and La Nina!
Yeah DAD is back(and with a vengeance)!
I even sneezed on Arkansas just put an exclamation point on Billy Boy's narcissistic denouement!
They're pissin' it away, pissin' it all away...
Peace? Peace?
But there was no peace....

MAY GOD BLESS
US ALL
EVERY
ONE

Beaver and Birds:
I t'ink you're on solid t'eoretical footin' dere wit yer questioning the SFI status-quo. Weigh the bio-mass that's been removed over the past 10 yers vs da acreage logged and ya might find a rational answers to yer questions.

Now here's my 2 coppers:
1. Way to go, Serbs!
2. 281.42 million is America's population according to the 2000 census--much of the Great Lakes and Northeast are losing people-power to the South and West(N.Y. now #3 State behind California and Texas)...
3. There are some "Huskies" in the Rose Bowl this year(but if you're a Drew Brees and Boilermakers fan, beware trans-conference loyalty based on mascot fetishes)...
4. Today, in England, an Australian writer hang-glided onto the private grounds of Buckingham Palace in an effort to get attention for his literary project. He was arrested for trespassing upon royalty and exhibiting signs of blue-collar desperation.
5. Despite what you may have heard, 13 Days is good flick!
HAPPY NEW MILLENNIUM ALL!

Thanks Jim Pearce. will have to get me my nitrate test kit and strap on a pair of snowhoes and get some samples of that there water where the proposed poopy spray will go. The wetlands and streams leading to the montreal will need to be tested to establish a benchmark of how much nitrogen is in the water now before they start spraying all that •••• onto the land. Have a nice day.

To Billy (the beaver),
I bin tinking bout whud you posted dere on da site about logging. Now all I be needin' is to know how big the Keweenaw County is size-wise and then maybe I kin begin to figure if the loggin' trucks will continue to pass thru the metropolitan area of Mohawk, 30-per-day, tandem-loaded, and fer how long?

O'tay. So a land swap wus proposed a yer ago or so. You reckon, Billy, that the time period is approachin' when dey loggin' will begin to slow to a halt? Der mus' be some areas not hit yet. How's a'bout ober dere by the Brinkman's place? Couple acres to log dere, I s'pose.

By the way, how many cords are on a tandem-loaded loggin' truck headed soud? And wid all dat weight leavin' the place (copper, trees) whud wood be replacin' id? Or do trees materialize from nuddin'?

Nuthatch,
Last week, you asked Forestworker:Here's a question: Are forestworkers/loggers required to maintain a buffer zone around streams?
Or can they log right up to the bank of a stream?

Forestworker has yet to respond to your question. Perhaps the holidays has Forestworker busy with presents. Here is a possible answer:There are several criteria to
determine how far away from a stream or water body you can harvest timber.
There is a voluntary guideline published by the MDNR which gives these
criteria. In some instances it is acceptable to harvest right up to the
water body. In others a 50 or 100 foot setback is suggested. It all depends
upon the soil type, hydrology, slope and aspect of the site...

And you, Nuthatch, or one of your bird-brained friends wondered aloud about other aspects of the forest industry. You wondered if it was possible that logging could cease on a piece of ground, in particular, Keweenaw County. While this answer addresses that thought, it is concerned with a plot of ground, say, 640 acres in size.

Is it possible to harvest trees from that plot every year,
indefinitely? If so, how would that translate into cords-per-acre?

] It is possible (in theory) to harvest timber from the stand
every year. I would not recommend it however. In an annual harvest you are
consistently disturbing the site and compacting the soil by the harvest
machinery. A typical harvest schedule of entry would be every ten years. On
average an acre of northern hardwoods (not intensively managed) grows a 1/2
of cord of wood per year. Therefore on a "typical" 640 acres parcel of
wooded land, one can expect to grow an average of 320 cords of wood per
year or 3200 cords every ten years. Therefore a harvest of 3200 cords every
ten years would more than likely insure your forest to be sustainable
indefinitely.

Thank you very much, Nuthatch, for you interest in the trees you like to land upon, and lucky for you that you cannot reach the remote.

(U.P. EYE) Old North Church, Boston MA, 1851
"When a writer calls his work a Romance, it need hardly be observed that he wishes to claim a certain latitude, both as to its fashion and material, which he would not have felt himself entitled to assume had he professed to be writing a Novel.
He would be glad, therefore, if--especially in the quarter to which he alludes--the book may be read strictly as a Romance, having a great deal more to do with the clouds overhead than with any portion of the actual soil of the County..."
Nathaniel Hawthorne
January 27, 1851

HO HO HO TO YOU
Merry Christmas too.
Hope the day is full of joys
Not to mention gifts and toys
Of Gods blessings I hope you get lots and lots
you and yours and everyones tots
Games, dolls, bikes, and sleds
will be dreamed of from childrens beds
Heres wishing Happy Holidays to one and all
To all of Gods children whether they big or small
I hope everyone gets their wish each and everyone
Just remember the gift of Gods one beloved son
Well that's it, that's all I have to say
Just wanted to wish you all the joys of the day!
Merry Merry Christmas.

MERRY CHRISTMAS to all.

Yippie Aye Ki Aye, its clearing, well its time to pank the snow again!!! I have something like ten flat snowmen in my driveway. Last week someone posted that someone is getting driveways plowed for free. The plow just turned around in my driveway!!! The bank is about 6 feet tall, santa will make sure his stocking is full with a pile of •••• if I have anything to say about it!!! Jean I do believe that beer goggles are what makes the surroundings look a little better from within. This can be a bad thing for in the morning coyoteee ugly takes effect. When this happens you must chew the arm off that the person next to you is sleeping on. (For fear of waking her) This is done with great care and some sisu!!! Blue sky is starting to show telling me to get off my ••• and go make snow men.
Merry Christmas to ALL!!!!!!!!

Hermit Thrush,

Last week you said, If I remember aright, a few years back the State changed the way that CFR taxes help fund public schools. It all goes into a state pool or general fund from which all schools in Michigan can draw from. It isn't hard to see where most of that money must go(and it's not spelled U.P.).

While strolling through the links Forestworker directed us toward, I found some information.

"Michigan's fifth FIA shows that our forests are resilient. We have one million more acres (a 6% increase) and 36% more growing stock than in 1980. This forest resource supports a $12 billion forest economy.Seventy-five percent of this economy is in the southern Lower Peninsula."

[Around Lansing, I've seen a lot of open, flat farmland. The further north I go, the more trees I see. So if CFR tax money is placed in a pool that is piped to many schools, whose schools get the bulk of this money? And do these areas also have other industrial tax base to support their schools?]

That 75% number is an eye-opener. And in the Lower Peninsula, to boot. I wonder where one goes to find out where the CFR tax dollar is sent?
Maybe a call to a township supervisor? township treasurer?