COLUMBIANA COUNTY
SOIL AND WATER DISTRICT
Serving Columbiana County’s natural resource and agriculture needs
Current Agricultural Use Value program, what is it? An introduction to CAUV.
For some landowners the question of “what is the Current Agricultural Use Value
program”, or CAUV for short, may be a simple thing to answer. For many landowners
this may be something that they have not ever heard of or have only heard of briefly and
do not know much about it.
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What is the CAUV program? This program is essentially a tax savings program that allows for property that is used for commercial agricultural production to be taxed at a value based on the soil’s capability to produce income from the sale of product rather than the value of the land. This program was first created in 1974 and has been administered by the auditor’s office ever since. The commercial practice of raising field crops, animal husbandry, and cultivating timber for harvest are all activities that qualify for this program. Of course, these activities need to meet the
definition of being done as a commercial production which is that of “the act or process
of making something, doing and act or operating an enterprise primarily for profit.” Other
qualifications which must be met include those of over 10 acres of continuous land not
including the homesite if one is present. If the land is less than 10 total acres, then the
landowner must provide proof of an income of $2500 or greater for the last three years
as well as the anticipated gross in money for the current year. If applying for CAUV this
can be done by the property owner or owners of the property so long as all parcels on
the property have the same legal owner or owners listed on all parcels.
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CURRENT AGRICULTURAL USE VALUE PROGRAM, FORESTRY MANAGEMENT
As we have discussed in the 2024 January-March issue of the Conservation Chronicle
the Current Agricultural Use Value (CAUV) Program is a program that was created to
help save tax dollars for landowners based on the soils capability to produce income.
We also looked previously at some of the history behind this program and even the
qualifications to be enrolled in this program. Now we are going to be looking at the
requirements of the program when focusing on specific land use types. This month’s
land use type which we will look at is that of forestry management.
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In Columbiana County we have approximately 16,000 acres of land enrolled in CAUV under the title of forestry management and as more people plan to manage their woods for commercial timber production this number will continue to grow. As always to enroll your property into CAUV a landowner needs to have 10 acres or greater of contiguous land or to provide proof that they make $2,500 off the land per year. Assuming a landowner’s property can pass these requirements, it is required by the Auditors Office for the landowner to have an up-to-date forestry management plan written for their property by a consulting forester. This plan will be the basis for how the landowner should manage their woodland best for timber production. If a landowner goes through these steps, then they can fill out an application form for enrollment in the CAUV program.
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Being enrolled in CAUV for forestry, a landowner should be able to show management of his/her woods as he/she is intending on having timber harvested off these woods for a commercial timber sale in the future. When it comes to performing management on the property there are several different things that can be done.
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The first management practice is that of having the boundaries of the property clearly marked. These property boundaries should be easily able to be seen by anyone walking the property and should be able to be followed to navigate the woodland. Many landowners use steel fence posts painted bright colors like yellow or orange whereas some use things like PVC pipe for markers. Signage can also be used for property markers as well as another options.
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The second management practice of the program is to maintain access roads or trails to and across the property if any are present. This is important for both management of your woodland as well as use is a possible future logging operation. It also is helpful for when property checks occur on your woodland which we will discuss more later in this article.
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The third management practice which needs to be worked on to continue enrollment in the program is the dealing with invasive species and species that can impact tree growth on the property. Species such as Multiflora rose, Bush honeysuckle, Autumn olive, and Japanese
barberry for instance needs to be delt with through herbicide application or removal by
other means. This is only necessary if these species presence is overtaking the woodland and or affecting tree growth, production, or ability to maintain the woodland.
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In most cases this is done to help maintain access to the woodland as well as to prevent issues of invasive species impacting tree growth. Other invasive species such as Tree of heaven or
Ornamental bittersweet, however, need to be removed from the woodland entirely with the help of proper herbicide treatment. If Wild grapevines are present on the property these need to be cut to help remove them from the woodland to prevent issues of them damaging trees. Other than these management practices, the simple following of the forestry management plan that is written by the consulting forester should be used to help with managing your woodland for timber
production. In some cases, these plans include tree thinning, cull tree removal, or other practices to benefit the woodland.
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As with any property that is enrolled in the CAUV program, property checks are completed on a 3-to-5- year basis to make sure that active management is occurring on the property. Landowners are contacted prior to a visit occurring and are encouraged to take part in the visit to show what management they have been working on across the property as well as to ask questions if they have any. It is not required for a landowner to take part in these visits if they choose not to or are unable to do so. A report of what was seen while visiting the property including the different management practices that we looked at, acreage, and sign of active management is then send to the auditor’s office to be determined if the landowner maintains eligibility.
It should be mentioned that active management can be anything from an area of the woods which you sprayed Multiflora rose with herbicide to help remove it for better access, the removal of cull trees to help thin out the sections of woods you are managing, or maybe something as simple as the removal of a tree that had fallen across an access road. If the woods in extremely well managed and the landowner has followed their forestry management plan there may not be any management that needs to be done. This is fine in this case especially if everything is being properly delt with when management is required. Overall, the CAUV program, if used properly, is
a great way to save you some money on your property taxes as well as a great way to
help you manage your woods for commercial timber production.
CURRENT AGRICULTURAL USE VALUE PROGRAM, AGRICULTURAL USE
As we have discussed in the 2024 January-March issue of the Conservation Chronicle, the Current Agricultural Use Value (CAUV) Program is a program that was created to help save tax dollars for landowners based on the soils capability to produce income.
We also looked previously at some of the history behind this program and even the qualifications to be enrolled in this program. In the April-June edition we looked at forestry management and discussed how the CAUV program was utilized as well as how different management practices help one stay in compliance with the program. Now we are going to be looking at the requirements of the program when focusing on specific land use types. This month’s land use type which we will look at is that of Agricultural use.
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In Columbiana County there are several different land use types in CAUV that can be classified as agricultural. These include that of agricultural fields, land used for animal husbandry, and pasture ground mostly. All land being enrolled must be used specifically for commercial agricultural use. As always when it comes to enrolling ground in CAUV it is required that the landowner has 10 acres or greater of contiguous land or to provide proof that they make $2500 off the land per year.
If the land being enrolled is agricultural farmland, then the landowner must show that the land was farmed for 3 consecutive years prior to their inquiry for enrollment. Assuming a landowner’s property can pass these steps, they will be able to enroll their land into the CAUV program. To stay enrolled within the program, the landowner must show active use of the land enrolled.
For agricultural fields this would be considered the active use of these fields to produce
a commercial crop of any kind.
For use of the area utilized for animal husbandry or pasture ground this would simply be able to be viewed to see the presence of livestock or animals being cared for on the given piece of land. Through the CAUV program there is an idle acre’s provision that states land may lay vacant from use for more than one year but less than three years. This means that land may be vacant of use for one year without cause, but this must be listed on the CAUV renewal form. In the second year this land is vacant of use, the landowner must show good cause for this vacancy. The
landowner would then need to file a board of revision complaint form on years two and
three stating their reasons for land vacancy.
The landowner filing the complaint form would need to be able to provide good cause and create a business plan explaining how they plan to bring this land back to commercial agricultural production. If the board does find good cause, then the landowner will be granted another year to leave the field idle. In the third year of vacancy the property still must return to active agricultural use.
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For additional information on the CAUV program please contact Jamie Poppelriter at the
Columbiana County Courthouse at jpoppelriter@columbianacntyauditor.org or by phone at (330) 424-9515.