By JAMES RONALD SKAINS

Finalization of the new Louisiana timber harvesting regulations was the main topic of conversation at the December meeting of the Louisiana Forestry Commission chaired by Burton Weaver, Jr. of Flora, along with other items of business.

Marvin Montgomery, staff attorney for the Department, outlined the mandate from the Louisiana Legislature to the Forestry Commission. ``We have been asked to develop rules and regulations that clearly meet the requirements of showing proof of ownership of any and all timber harvested and carried to markets,'' Montgomery said.

Pending rules are part of LA. R.S. 3:4278 concerning timber harvesting and receiving records adopted to reduce timber theft by requiring proof of timber ownership throughout the harvesting process.

One section of the law says, ``Wood-receiving facilities cannot accept any load of timber unless all information required by these regulations is provided at time of delivery.''

The law states in part, ``Each wood receiving facility or harvesting site shall permit any commissioned officer from the Department of Agriculture and Forestry, Office of Forestry to examine all records for compliance to these regulations.''

This section brought questions from attorney Chris DiCharry, representing the Louisiana Pulp and Paper Association. He asked, ``Will these company records such as the scale and loader tickets become public records under this set of regulations? Can records dealing with business issues of the company be exempt and kept confidential?''

Marvin Montgomery, staff attorney for the Forestry Commission said ``The intent of subsection 1505 is to give access to the Office of Forestry to insure that the mills are in compliance of maintaining these records, not to look for specific records relating to specific loads of logs unless there is an actual investigation of timber theft underway.''

The Piney Woods Journal outside the Commission meeting room asked both attorneys, DiCharry and Montgomery a hypothetical but realistic question: ``A mill may maintain the loggers and haulers records but if the mills are not required to balance these records with their own records of how much timber actually came into the mill each day would this not leave a potential loophole for a rogue mill operator?''

fs20 \expnd0 \lang1033 Neither Montgomery or DiCharry had an answer.

Buck Vandersteen, Executive Director of the Louisiana Forestry Association asked ``Will there be a grace-period or orientation period once these regulations go into effect? We don't want mills to have to turn away loads of logs because all the loggers and wood dealers aren't aware of or don't understand the new system.''

Paul Frey assured the Commission members that a system would be in place to give everyone plenty of notice of how the new system will work and what was expected of everyone.

Frey said ``We know the mills don't want to receive stolen goods. There will be plenty of time for everyone to meet the requirements.''

Tom Trahan, Chief Law Enforcement Officer for Office of Forestry noted ``With all the timber theft cases that we have investigated and helped resolve either through out of court settlements or in court, timber theft is still a major problem in Louisiana. We currently have 80-plus cases that we are working.''

DiCharry also had a concern about loads of timber originating out of state. ``Can we require loads of timber originating from out of state to follow our requirements? What if the info is incomplete, will the mills have to reject the load?''

Tom Trahan pointed out that ``There will be no greater burden on out-of-state timber than on timber cut here in Louisiana. If we can not require proof of ownership on out-of-state timber, then we have left a major loophole available to the timber thieves."

Ed Myers, Forestry Commission member and Wood procurement chief for the Smurfit/Stone Paper mill in Hodge, said ``20 per cent of our wood comes from out-of-state. We require proof of ownership at the first point of scale, which is our wood dealer's location.''

Montgomery, the Commission attorney, also pointed out that under the new regulations which will probably go into effect in early 2001, the Louisiana Forestry Commission could be called to serve as arbitrator of disputes under the new rules. Paul Frey, State Forester also informed the Commission that two meetings of the Forest Study Group set up to the proposed rules governing the harvesting of timber would be held in mid-December. The first meeting was scheduled Dec. 19 in Baton Rouge and the second the following day at the LFA office in Alexandria.

Seedlings in oversupply
State Nursery Superintendent Charles Matherne in his report to the Commission, emphasized that the State nurseries have an over supply of pine seedlings this year.

``Usually by this time of the year we are sold out and are taking orders for next year but this year we have numbers of unsold pine seedlings. We think that a lot of people had decided not to plant because of the drought but the weather has turned very favorable for planting. We have at least a couple of million pine seedlings available for purchase,'' Matherne said.

Don Feduccia, who heads the State's Forestry Productivity Program (FPP) said ``There is still money available under the FPP program for reforestation. For year 2001, we have approved for funding 1066 applications for a total of $4,229,619 which averages about $3,994 per applicant.''

The Forest Protection Branch report of Paul Frey's Office of Forestry report to the other Commission members in attendance noted 2000 as a ``real fires season''. There were 4,874 forest fires in 2000 that burned 91,851 acres, up from 3,296 fires that burned 27,8111 acres in 1999.

The average size fire in 2000 was twice as large as the average for 1999--18.8 acres compared to 8.4 acres. The last ten-year annual average for forest fires in Louisiana was 3,086 fires each year burning an average of 8.4 acres for an annual average total of 35,536 acres.

Tom Trahan, in response to a question from Chairman Burton Weaver, Jr. about arson in the fires last summer in southwest Louisiana, said ``We have gathered a preponderance of evidence that arson was a factor in some of those fires; however, we do not yet have evidence beyond a reasonable doubt. One of the District Attorneys in the area is going to empanel a Grand Jury which may result in indictments.''

The Louisiana Forestry Commission is composed of seven members of whom five were present, including chairman Weaver, Ed Myers of Smurfit/Stone in Jonesboro, Dr. Bob Blackmon from LSU, Sam Pruitt from Lake Charles, Jimmy Jenkins from the State Wildlife and Fisheries Office and Dick Richardson of Franklinton. One vacancy is currently on the Forestry Commission.