Economic and tax issues

Abstract

Economic conditions and tax policies affect land use decisions everywhere, but their effects on the rate of change in land use are particularly large in the wildland-urban interface. We begin this chapter with a brief economic history of the South and a description of the macroeconomic trends and conditions that affect microeconomics at the wildlandurban interface. Next comes a description of the many Federal and State taxes that affect nonindustrial private landowners. This is followed by a summary of historical trends in rural land taxation and a discussion of how taxes affect land use change at the wildland-urban interface. The chapter concludes with discussion of existing economic and tax tools and of challenges and opportunities in research, education, and policy.

Citation

Moffat, Steverson O.; Greene, John L. 2002. Economic and tax issues. In: Human influences on forest ecosystems: the southern wildland-urban interface assessment GTR-SRS-055, Asheville, NC.