New Yorkers give support to protecting open space through consistently passing bond acts for state land acquisition; yet they do not provide support to agencies for managing the acquired open space. A more productive and less expensive approach to retaining the rural character of upstate could be in providing landowners with a reasonable incentive to retain large parcels. New York real property taxes on rural land are among the highest in the country. These confiscatory taxes and pressure for parcelization have reduced the average wooded parcel size dramatically over the past few decades. This seems contrary to what our society seems to want. The forest tax law (RPTL, Section 480-a) is one program that was developed to stabilize forest industry andencourage maintaining large forested tracts. Yet, since 1978, when 480-a became active, a relatively small portion of the nine million eligible acres has been enrolled.
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