<story><title>Paying people to preserve forests seems to work</title><url>https://arstechnica.com/science/2017/07/paying-people-to-preserve-forests-really-seems-to-work/</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>CWuestefeld</author><text>NY State has a program called &amp;quot;480-A&amp;quot; that gives landowners a tax break for exercising proper stewardship of forest resources. To qualify you need not only to have the trees, but also document periodic maintenance like &amp;quot;TSI&amp;quot; (Timber Stand Improvement, where you&amp;#x27;re supposed to thin out some of the younger trees to give the remainder more space to grow), and harvesting of the large mature trees.&lt;p&gt;The thing about this program is that there&amp;#x27;s so much bureaucratic nonsense around it, with all kinds of reporting requirements and such, and that if you&amp;#x27;re not compliant they&amp;#x27;ll retroactively claw back 10 years worth of benefits if you mess up.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;ve got 76 forested acres upstate that was enrolled in this program when I bought it. Despite the tax advantages I pulled the land out of the program as soon as I could. Between the hassle of the red tape, and the fear of the financial repercussions, I didn&amp;#x27;t want the risk. I still do the stuff they want you to do - it only makes sense, as it provides an income from harvesting the lumber - but my motivation is nothing to do with their program itself.&lt;p&gt;My point is that when government sets its bureaucracy on what might otherwise be a good idea, they can taint the benefit that it was supposed to carry, making it ineffective.</text></comment>
<story><title>Paying people to preserve forests seems to work</title><url>https://arstechnica.com/science/2017/07/paying-people-to-preserve-forests-really-seems-to-work/</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>Overtonwindow</author><text>My great aunt received a check from the government for most of her life for growing trees on her land, and agreeing not to cut them down without permission.</text></comment>