| LDAF report shows
severance taxes, landowner values for 2003 timber sales Vernon Parish, Louisiana, home of Leesville and the Fort Polk military base, led Louisiana in timber production and stumpage paid to landowners in 2003, according to the parish-by-parish economic analysis of timber production just released by the Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry (LDAF). Vernon, on the western border of Louisiana on the Sabine river at the southern tip of the Toledo Reservoir, is one of Louisiana's largest parishes geographically, and is consistently among the top timber producing areas in the State. According to the LDAF report from the office of Commissioner Bob Odom, the pine sawlog harvest in Vernon parish in 2003 yielded over 89.5 million board feet. Estimated stumpage value, that is, money paid to landowners for sale of timber, was $37,966,879. Severance taxes of $1,133,742 were collected on timber from Vernon parish. The top ten timber producing parishes, all except one located in the North and North Central Louisiana region, accounted for 51% of the state's total timber harvest last year, at $309.7 million, of the total $605.3 million statewide. Every parish in the State had some commercial timber harvest, with parishes in the New Orleans metropolitan area having the smallest of all. The top ten parishes, with stumpage value to
landowners, are: Charts for parish-by-parish listing 04 timber volume, severance taxes, and stumpage paid to landowners available in the June issue of The Piney Woods Journal. |