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To clarify:
Because West Virginia is rural and covered with trees, the state regards this renewable resource as taxable just as they do minerals found in the ground. The wise stewards of Charleston know that unless you have a cleared land parcel that someday the trees on that parcel will be harvested.
The entire state of West Virginia was logged out at the turn of the century and hardly any evidence of old growth forests remain. One exception is the small area of Cathedral State Park near Aurora in Preston County.
After that logging was completed West Virginia was barren. In the past hundred years trees have matured and are being harvested again. Much of the remaining hardwood forests in the USA are found in West Virginia. Walnut and Cherry, Poplar and Maple are very valuable and because you will sell those trees if you own them...the state will tax them...
What is so crazy is the way they tax them (with your property year after year), instead of taking a straight 6% when the sale is made.
I've watched a 13 acre parcel of cleared land beside me turn to scrub and then into small trees in a 35 year period. My neighbors taxes on that near worthless parcel has gone up 700% in that same time period. He is ready this fall to bulldoze it all into piles and burn it to get a reduction in property taxes..all just to spite the county accessor and give himself peace of mind.
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