Wife and I are actively searching & ready to buy some land.  (more isolated, nature/hunt/shoot, maybe someday retirement home base)  Any comments about local / county government in Langlade?  Any areas to avoid?

I have been dismissing anything enrolled in MFL because I'm the type that wants to own it and do what I want with my own property.  I have no experience with MFL, but it just seems antithetical to my being.  Are we missing out because of this?  Any experience getting land out of that?  Seems very costly.

All depends on how long/when it was put in. Taking it out is a run around, took me 8 months I think. Dnr forester guy was good to deal with, the tax side people were morons.

you know you can remove it from the MFL program, right? Might be a pain for a year or two (hunters returning from previous years not aware of the de-enrollment)

Near as I can tell, withdrawal cost is as much as 10 years of taxes but the number is only established after the owner pays a $200 application fee.  (Seems legit.)  So it appears that we'd have to buy and then learn the cost.  Guess it would need to be a great deal before I'd consider that.

Still looking.  This is going to take patience, I guess...

What is MFL program?

If you find a spot you really want that's currently in MFL, make an offer contingent upon it's removal prior to your purchase.

In a nutshell... It's a state program that negates or forgives property taxes on privately owned forest land, if it is open to public use for hunting, fishing, hiking, etc.

Downside to it is, withdrawing it means back taxes are now due...so it's like Hotel California, "you can never leave".

Are they typically busy with people using them for recreation?

I think that would depend heavily on location / surroundings.  There is also MFL Open and MFL Closed, and it appears that MFL Closed is more restrictive about other people accessing the land.

The bigger issue for me is that MFL restricts the ability to cut trees, make trails, build anything, etc.  (Again, no experience but this is what I've been able to gather from the bureaucracy's websites.)  It almost seems like having a hunting lease where the DNR is the landowner with all the property rights, even though you technically own it.

Thanks. I've been looking to.

Good tip on pulling the land out before buying.  And taxes don't seem bad, but I don't want to be stuck with someone else's bill.

You could switch it to MFL closed and probably not incur a large expense, but I would contact the forester for that property and see what all you could do such as trails, hinge cutting or anything that would improve the habitat.

I happen to hunt a former MFL closed property, which has now been put into a Heritage trust. Prior to the expiration of the MFL, the forester allowed the owner to plant the old logging trails and remove trees that produce little to no timber value. This property was a mature forest of Oak and Walnut with very little under story, since a 60% log off two years ago, the critters have exploded and the landowner got a nice paycheck.