A bill for an act relating to forest and fruit-tree reservations, and providing for a fee.

HF 634 establishes an annual fee for landowners who maintain forest and fruit-tree reservations that currently qualify for property tax exemptions under Iowa law. Starting January 1, 2026, fees will be paid by September 1 each year to the county treasurer and deposited into the county general fund. The fee amount depends on location: $2 per acre if the reservation is in the same county as the owner's homestead, $3 per acre if in a contiguous county, and a calculated rate based on county property taxes and corn ratings for all other reservations (including those within city limits). This replaces the current tax exemption with a location-based fee structure, directly affecting landowners with designated forest or fruit-tree reservations.