Mississippi Forestry Law — Managed Forest Land Classification & Forestry Right-to-Practice (MS)

Tracked preemption from the Mississippi overlay bundle.

Overview

Effective
1944-01-01
Sunset
Authority
state
Scope
state:MS

Trigger predicate

When this evaluates true for a parcel, the law's preempted fields take precedence over base zoning.

OR
  • parcel.in_managed_forest_classification == True
  • parcel.land_use_classification == forestry

Preempted fields

2 fields on the base district schema are rewritten when the trigger fires.

FieldOpValueNote
parcel.tax_assessment_basisoverrideuse_value_class_ii_forestClass II (forest land) ad valorem use-value assessment under §27-35-50 reduces taxable basis materially below market
base_districts[*].forestry_practices_right_to_practiceoverridepreempted_by_state_bmpsSilvicultural activities conducted per MFC Best Management Practices are not subject to local nuisance ordinances; cities may not prohibit forestry on land assessed as Class II forest

Citation

Authority source
Miss. Code Ann. §§49-19-1 through 49-19-301 (Mississippi Forestry Commission); §27-35-50 (use-value forest assessment); MFC Forestry BMPs
§ §§49-19-1 et seq.; §27-35-50
https://law.justia.com/codes/mississippi/title-49/chapter-19/

Research notes

MS is the third-most-forested state by acreage (~19.8M acres / 65%). Mississippi Forestry Commission (MFC) administers fire control, BMPs, and seedling production. Forest landowners enrolled under §27-35-50 receive use-value assessment but the parcel must remain in qualifying production — conversion triggers a rollback (no fixed schedule, computed at reassessment). Forestry exemption interacts with §17-1 zoning: forestry is generally treated as agriculture for county-zoning exemption purposes (cf. §17-1-17(2)).