LANSING – Legislation designed to open up more privately owned forestland to the timber industry was signed into law Thursday by Governor Rick Snyder, who hailed the bills as boosting the state’s economy.

“This is an opportunity to export more,” he said at a news conference with legislators and timber industry officials. “This is actually an underutilized opportunity in our state.”

The key aspect of the legislation, supporters said, is empowering county conservation districts to educate landowners about harvesting their land for timber and managing the forestland on their property. There would be incentives to encourage landowners to participate in the program with backers promising it would be much easier to navigate than the current one.

Governor Rick Snyder said the previous program, which did not function well, yielded about 70,000 to 80,000 acres of forestland. The new program has a cap of 1.2 million acres, although Snyder said it would take some time to reach that cap in terms of participation.

The legislation cleared both houses of the Legislature overwhelmingly and provoked little to no concern from environmentalists.

Signed were SB 51 (PA 42), SB 54 (PA 43), SB 55 (PA 44), SB 56 (PA 45), SB 57 (PA 46), SB 58 (PA 47), HB 4069 (PA 48), HB 4243 (PA 49) and HB 4244 (PA 50). All bills are effective as of June 1. Snyder signed SB 51 on Thursday and the rest of the bills on Wednesday.

The way forestland in the program is taxed also would change, although the fiscal agencies said the new method would have relatively minimal fiscal impact.

The Qualified Forest Program also will move from the Department of Natural Resources to the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development.

Sen. Darwin Booher (R-Evart), one of the bill sponsors, called the involvement of conservation districts key. And Rep. Ed McBroom (R-Vulcan) said in many instances private landowners may not realize the timber on their property only has value to a certain age, information that would be made available under the bills.

“This piece of legislation will allow us to reach those private landowners that have not yet taken an active role in the management of their forest,” said Todd Johnson, forestry services manager for Grayling-based Weyerhauser mill and a member of the Michigan Forest Products Council board.

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