OPINION/COMMENTARY

Private Stewardship Rocks For Rolling Stones Keyboardist While forestry in Georgia may not face the tougher regulatory challenges of other states in the Northeast and Northwest, Leavell still sees the harm rendered by excessive government regulation. He points to the estate tax, the “death tax,” as one government regulation that conservation-minded landowners could do without, because it forces many family forest owners to break up or sell their land to pay taxes: “It cuts against the bedrock of Southern forest conservation – the heritage of family stewardship that people bring to the land.” Leavell also opposes the “very detailed and expensive rules that are intended to tell us just what we have to do to protect water, wildlife and other environmental values,” pointing out that, “Most of us want to do this anyway, and it would be cheaper and less cumbersome to educate people about what to do, and they’ll do it.” Additionally, Georgia foresters face regulatory challenges regarding private property rights and the Endangered Species Act: “When you’re told that you can’t do any harvesting whatsoever on large tracts because there is one pair of red-cockaded woodpeckers nesting in one tree on your place, that’s just unreasonable,” he notes....