Yes we do. My wife inherited a farm recently and we had to go to the local federal farm office to deal with that. The Feds have had a program for years that pay you to not grow anything. 10 or 15 years ago they wouldn’t let you keep the ground mowed or anything. Now after 15 years of trees growing that couldn’t be legally cut they say that you have to cut the trees to stay in the program!
There are also other programs that pay farmers or subsidize them to some extent. I was told that the program paying you not to grow was originally based on the theory that letting some ground lay fallow was stopping erosion and that benefited the public at large. Now they want the trees cut down to promote wildlife. “Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.”
I guess that since the depression there have been more bad years than good years for farmers and that is why these programs,as unconstitutional as they are, have stuck around.
Interesting. Thanks for your reply.
It was an Old Testament law to the Jewish people to let the land lie fallow every 7th year. Nowhere in the O.T. will you find that the government will take care of you that year. It was to let the land "rest" every 7th year and you were supposed to store up food during the previous 6 years to carry you through the 7 th.
The people got in a lot of trouble for disobeying that law, (among others).
However, if you joined the Managed Forest program, you are mandated to thin out trash trees, like aspen, but you will be stonewalled if you want to harvest hardwoods, like maple.
Our forester told us she is not even going out to look at Managed Forest land. She is part-time and is told to stay in the office working up *plans*. The gratuitous comment that followed was:”You just want the economic benefit of harvesting the maples.” Cue snarky disgust in her voice.
Our contract ends in 2014, but the increase in property taxes might mean we re-up in the MFL program.