By LINDA McGURK
Indiana Correspondent

BRIDGETON, Ind. — There was a time when forests in Indiana were considered nothing but a wasteland and liability. Not anymore.
The production of Indiana hardwoods is now a billion-dollar industry, and the use of forests for recreational purposes is growing exponentially, according to the Indiana Forestry and Woodland Owners Assoc. (IFWOA).

“Back in the (19)70s you could buy woodlands for $500 per acre or less and the person selling it laughed at you, thinking you were a fool,” Allen Royer, a district forester with the Indiana Division of Forestry, told a group of private landowners during IFWOA’s annual meeting on Nov. 14.

“Today, woodlands are going for about the same as or more than cropland. Many farms have been saved from bankruptcy by harvesting the timber.”

While corn prices remained stagnant around $2 per bushel year after year until they were finally sent higher by the ethanol boom, the price of hardwoods has increased tenfold since the 1970s, Royer said, from 3-5 cents per board foot to 30-45 cents today. That’s resulted in an average price of $2,200-$3,200 per acre for timberland in Indiana.

“For the most part, you can make a pretty good return on timberlands. The problem is that it’s a long-term investment,” said IFWOA President Philip Gramelspacher.

The time required to grow a seedling to a mature tree is generally 50-125 years, depending on the species and environmental factors, and carefully managed woodlands are generally harvested every 10-15 years.

“I smile when people call me and say they want to plant trees for their kid’s college fund. It’s not going to happen,” Royer said.
Owning and managing woodlands can still be a rewarding investment, according to Bob Miller, an IFWOA member who hosted a field tour on his 160-acre hardwood tract in Parke County during the organization’s annual meeting. Miller retired from his job as a research glass blower at Eli Lilly in 1989 and bought his first woodlands in 1992.

“I made friends with people who owned forestland and they said it was a great way of investing,” he said. “You just have to be very patient.”

Miller has since bought three more tracts of forest and had his first harvest in 2001. He’s also creating income from his land by leasing three of his four tracts to hunters, a practice that’s becoming more popular, according to Royer.

“Leasing was unheard of just 10 years ago; now it’s the big thing. You can get as much as $20 per acre,” he said.

Although some landowners choose to rent out their forests on their own, leasing through a private company takes care of the cost of liability insurance. Indiana has approximately half a dozen companies facilitating land leases for recreational purposes.
Leasing the land to hunters also helps the landowner control the deer population, which is one of the biggest threats to young trees.
Rapid population growth, urban sprawl and – to some extent – higher grain prices present another challenge to foresters and woodland enthusiasts. “One of the things that happened when grain prices tripled was that some farmers let their CRP (Conservation Reserve Program) contracts expire and converted this land back to farmland, which is sad,” Royer said.

Indiana woodlands were devastated by the first European settlers, and 100 years ago only 4 percent of Indiana was covered in woods, down from 87 percent when the settlers arrived, according to District Forester Janet Eger.

Government initiatives such as CRP helped put Indiana forests on the path to recovery by offering cost-share options for landowners who choose to plant trees in environmentally sensitive areas. Today, woodlands make up more than 3 million acres, or about 20 percent, of Indiana, and the state offers several forest management cost-share options. For more information about Indiana woodland conservation programs, visit www.in.gov/dnr/forestry