TOM KELLY
Editor and Publisher

Issues of property rights confront a growing number of East Texas forest and agricultural landowners, who seek to hold onto cherished private land uses in a state where the vast majority of population is now urban and has different ideas about who should have a voice in how the land can be used.

One speaker at the East Texas Forestry Field Day at the Texas A&M Research Center at Overton on May 23 pointed out that the Houston metroplex alone has more people than either of the two states of Mississippi or Louisiana.

And while the issues may be reaching a critical mass in East Texas because of the massive growth of the metropolitan areas around Houston, Dallas-Fort Worth, and the "Golden Triangle" of Orange-Beaumont-Port Arthur, they are of the same kind already addressed by a growing number of landowner groups in Louisiana and across the Southeastern United States pine belt.

The question forest and farmland owners are asking is, "Don't I have the Constitutional guarantee of the inalienable right to do whatever I want with my land that I have bought, paid for, and developed as I alone want to?"

City dwellers who outnumber us all, environmentalists and "quality of life" people, are saying, "Not necessarily."

Opening the all-day conference themed "Landowner Empowerment," keynote speaker James Malone, Executive Director of Alabama Treasure Forest Association, likened the great majority of America's estimated ten million family forest landowners as the "sleeping giant" that needs to be awakened to the issues in land ownership.

Malone, a rural born native South Alabamian whose family ties to land ownership go back to colonial times, spoke in a "down home" vernacular that was familiar to the East Texas group - most of whom professed to know the definition of "biddies," and to share with Malone a genuine "love of the land," which is the common bond of private ownership.

Malone estimated that only about ten percent of family forest landowners are actively involved in programs which protect private property interests, promote responsible forest management, and educate the public in the value of private family forests to the overall good of society.

"We need to awaken that sleeping giant," he said, and get more landowners involved.

Malone reviewed activities of the Alabama Treasure Forest Association which promotes forest-related programs at the community level in most counties of Alabama, involving schools, townspeople, and other landowners. ATFA currently has 48 county chapters, with 11 others in process of forming, Malone said, and each chapter develops its own program of outreach to teach forestry values in its communities.

Tom Boggus of the Texas Forest Service reviewed strengths and weaknesses of landowner empowerment in the State.

Boggus said 85 percent of Texas' population is urban. With the imbalance in population numbers, Boggus cautioned of the prospect for government intervention in decisons on land use and forest management. "People are looking at your land, and are willing to help you manage your land," he said.

He advised landowners to "cast your own shadow" on their land, by being actively involved in management decisions, and invest personal energy by being on the land. "If a timber harvest is a mess, it can take years to recover from a bad decision. Apathy about what happens to your land can be deadly."

Ron Hufford, executive vice president of the Texas Forestry Association, reviewed activities of the TFA on behalf of private landowners.

The Association, with 3,000 members, is managed by a board of directors with a cross-section of timber interests, with committees involved in landowner education, reforestation, marketing, environmental affairs, and legislative lobbying on behalf of the industry. The Association is allied with the Texas Agricultural Council, Texas Farm Bureau, and Lumbermen's Association of Texas to promote programs of mutual interest.

Jay Tate, Texas Agricultural Extension Service Associate, pointed out that the timber and agricultural areas of the state have far less representative in Congress and the State Legislature than the metropolitan areas.

Tate said, "Urbanization will continue, deepening the imbalance, and the need for consumer education about forest interests will continue. The benefits for unified, organized, and involved landowner groups will become more evident."

Darwin Foster, Extension Service specialist, reviewed services offered by the Extension Service for landowners.

Foster said Texas has abaout 12 million acres of forest land in the 43 counties of East Texas. Of this, 32% is owned by industry, 61% by non-industrial private landowners, and 6.7% by government.

He said that as urbanization spreads into rural areas, these forests become part of the urban forest.

"The nature of urban forests environemnt plays an important role in people's perception of resource management issues. Urban forest is likely to become the most influential forest of the 21st centuryh," Foster said.

Nolan Alders, a private landowner from Nacogdoches, Texas, made a passionate appeal for private landowners to get actively involved in private property rights issues. Alders is a primary organizer of the Pineywoods Agricultural Producers Alliance, which sponsored an East Texas rally at Lufkin in March to promote cooperation between farmers, ranchers, and forest landowners in private property rights against encroachments of government.

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