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Committee reviews formula used to calculate Vermont forest-land use-value appraisal
Summary
Staff presented the annual formula and data sources used to compute the 2025 use‑value appraisal for forest land; members raised questions about rising use values, stumpage reporting, management costs and potential follow-up with tax and carbon experts.
Catherine Servideo, forest-economy program manager with FPR, reviewed the formula and data sources the state uses to calculate the use‑value appraisal (UVA) for forest land and walked the Agriculture, Food Resiliency & Forestry Committee through the 2025 inputs and results.
Servideo said the calculation begins with an annual harvest stumpage value (a 10‑year average of harvest volumes multiplied by stumpage price by species), multiplies that by a growth‑to‑removals ratio to estimate remaining stumpage on the landscape, divides by total forested acres, applies a 25% management factor, and then divides net operating income per acre by a capitalization rate (derived from a 10‑year average of U.S. Treasury nominal rates and the effective tax rate supplied by the Department of Taxes). "I'm the forest economy program manager with FPR, and I'm the one who does this calculation every year," Servideo said.
Why it matters: committee members said UVA changes affect property taxes, the education fund and landowner finances. Discussion ranged from whether the UVA reflects what landowners actually receive for timber to…
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