Forestland owners in the city of Suffolk are encouraged to attend a workshop later this month about estate planning.

The Virginia Department of Forestry and other organizations and agencies are sponsoring the workshop on Jan. 19 at the Smithfield Center. The deadline for registration is Monday.

“Most of Virginia’s privately owned forestland is owned by someone who is 55, even 65 or older,” said Rob Suydam of the Virginia Department of Forestry. “Most of these owners are thinking about who they’re going to hand their land down to.”

Suydam said landowners in Virginia have expressed a high amount of interest in estate planning workshops.

“The department has put on similar workshops in the past regarding estate planning,” he said. “They have been tremendously successful.”

The workshop will give details on how to protect wishes regarding the use of the land, as well as who will inherit it.

“If the land is not protected by something like a conservation easement, the heir could turn right around and sell it to a developer,” Suydam said. “The parents may have wanted the property to stay in farm or forestry or stay in the family.”

Conservation easements are voluntary agreements between the landowner and the Department of Forestry to limit the amount of permissible development on the property. A conservation easement, Suydam said, is mostly a permanent decision.

“In the general sense, it lasts forever,” he said. “There is a process by which the easement could be extinguished, but I’m not familiar with one that has ever been overturned.”

Landowners who choose to use a conservation easement to protect their land also can learn more about the Tomorrow Woods program at the workshop.

Through the Tomorrow Woods program, landowners in several localities — including Suffolk, Isle of Wight County and Southampton County — can receive reimbursement for a portion of the costs of recording a conservation easement. Those costs include attorney’s fees, appraisal fees, title insurance costs and the cost of preparing the required forest stewardship plan.

To qualify for reimbursement through the Tomorrow Woods program, owners must hold 50 acres that are at least 75 percent forest cover, unless the parcel contains more than 100 acres of forest. Potential conservation easements also must conform to the city’s or county’s comprehensive plan.

The conservation easement is just one tool of many that will be discussed at the workshop, Suydam said.

“Anyone who is a forestland owner and in need of information on good estate planning should come, regardless of their acreage,” he said.

The Jan. 19 workshop at the Smithfield Center will be held from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. There is a $10 registration fee per person, which includes lunch. Registration forms can be located on the forestry department’s website, www.dof.virginia.gov.

For more information, email Suydam at robert.suydam@dof.virginia.gov.