Reforestation of Timberlands Board Meeting Minutes
The Heritage Center at Pocahontas State Park
Chesterfield, Virginia
April 13, 2006

Chairperson, Ann Duff, called the meeting to order at 9:30 am. Members present were Ann Duff, Earl Pickett, Grant Cosner, Charles Rose, Thomas Jefferson, Mark Martin, and Jim Kuykendall. Department of Forestry personnel in attendance were State Forester Carl Garrison; Deputy State Forester John Carroll; Dean Cumbia, Director of Forest Management; Todd Groh, Assistant Director of Forest Management, David Slack, Regional Forester, and Dennis Gaston, Assistant Regional Forester.

Ann Duff reviewed the Sherman Anti-Trust Act requirements forbidding discussion of prices and markets between attendees at the meeting.

The minutes of the September 27, 2005 meeting were approved as presented.

Carl Garrison introduced Todd Groh, the new Assistant Director of Forest Management to the board members. Todd had worked 12 years with the Department of Forestry prior to his leaving in 1999. He left to work for the Florida Division of Forestry for five years as the Conservation Programs Manager, and then to the West Virginia Division of Forestry for one and one half years as the Assistant State Forester for Forest Management and Stewardship. Mr. Groh will eventually take over the administrative responsibilities for the Reforestation of Timberlands program.

Carl Garrison reviewed the following bills of interest from the General Assembly and some of the DOF priority items.

• The Department asked for an increase in funding for the RT Program, $466,000, to come from the general fund. The Governor approved ½ of the amount, $233,000, in his budget proposal. The Forest Council is supporting the additional $233,000 to bring general fund support up to the 1:1 ratio. The Senate has approved the Governor’s increase, but the House decreased the amount by $100,000. Carl believes that they will eventually come together in the end, but doesn’t know what the final funding level will be.
• The Department asked for funding for an additional 15 positions and the Governor approved eight positions. Mr. Garrison informed the board that the new positions would be steered toward assistance in the water quality program. So far, the Department has not heard any negative comments from the Senate or the House.
• The Department submitted two tracts for purchase and inclusion into the State Forest system, one in Southwest Virginia owned by The Nature Conservancy, and one in south east Virginia owned by International Paper. If the General Assembly funds these purchases, the Department will add approximately 9,700 acres into the State Forest System.
• A bill was submitted to increase the hunting fee permits for the state forests from $10 to $15 per season. The bill passed with no problems; however the hunting fees collected still contribute very little to the State Forest overall expenses. Charles Rose asked why the Department does not raise the cost of the permits more to at least cover the road maintenance costs.
• HB-14 was submitted that addressed the right to practice forestry in Stafford County. The bill was supposed to close loopholes in the law and identify who was in charge of enforcement responsibilities. The bill was withdrawn this year due to several unanswered questions, but most likely will be submitted next year.
• SB -238 was submitted that addressed the Virginia Land Conservation Fund. This bill would split the funding given to the Department of Conservation and Recreation into five categories instead of four. The fifth category would come from splitting agriculture and forestry so both of the entities would stand alone when it comes to funding. There was no controversy over this change; the controversy concerned the funding allotment. The amount requested was one million with a decrease in funding that goes to the VA Outdoor Foundation from 25% to 10%. The bill was eventually withdrawn for additional work and most likely would be submitted next year.

Deputy State Forester, John Carroll, updated the Board on several program related items.

• The Reforestation of Timberlands Program is looked on very favorably by the General Assembly and therefore did very well in funding.
• The State Nurseries did very well this year, and sold out nearly all of our seedlings. In fact, the Department had to purchase additional seedlings from North Carolina to fill all of our orders. The Department has a reputation of providing very high quality seedlings to Virginia residents.
• DOF Personnel - Jim Bowen will be retiring in July 2006. This position will be split and two people hired; an Assistant State Forester for Planning and Policy, and an Assistant State Forester for Administration. The Department is also actively filling field forester positions.
• DOF Seedlings Fusiform Rust update – The Garland Gray Forestry Center identified its first time ever fusiform rust problem in the nursery in early 2004. Many of the infected seedlings were culled out during the grading process, but numerous seedlings were sent out. Most counties had low occurrences of infected seedlings; however the Department offered to reforest areas at DOF expense for the most affected areas, and offer seedling coupons to landowners who had minimal damage. So far, 70 of the coupons have been redeemed. The Department also discouraged landowners from trying to spot plat seedlings within their plantations. The DOF estimates that the majority of the fusiform rust infected trees would be taken out during the first thinning operation. The nurseries are now treating the seedling beds and seeds with a fungicide to avoid rust problems in the future.
• DOF Aerial Spray Program – The Department has successfully assisted landowners with site preparation and release herbicide application contracts for 25 years. In 2004, a chemical formulation was recommended that included a surfactant to the Department that is suspected in causing some damage to the pines. Of the 13,000 acres that were treated that fall, 6,000 acres of pines were significantly impacted by the chemicals. Compensation was offered to the landowners by a chemical company who received the greatest impact to their pines. The Department feels that the majority of the tracts will eventually grow out of this injury.

Director of Forest Management, Dean Cumbia discussed the following items with the Board.

• The Department has become aware of a problem with voles damaging plantations. Currently, there are 1,000 acres damaged by voles. The Department is researching the issue to determine if an economical solution can be found to limit the damage.
• White pine is a very valuable tree in Virginia, and on the right site, it will produce more volume than loblolly pine while still providing “value added” products. However, a problem in managing white pine is seedling survival. White pine seedlings need to be handled and planted very carefully for best survival. There is also some difficulty in releasing white pine because few chemicals are labeled for white pine release.
• Mr. Cumbia initiated some additional discussion on the proposal that all RT planting projects must meet the minimum of 80% correctly planted following the Department’s planting quality standards. This requirement may cause some logistic problems for some counties that have numerous planting projects, and may generate some complaints from landowners who don’t meet the requirement and therefore do not receive any cost share. The Department will highlight this new requirement on the RT-1 form to ensure that landowners are aware of the requirement and can inform the planting contractors as well.
• A 2005-2006 RT project sign-up table was reviewed and the current records show that there are 1,278 projects signed up for 46,833.6 acres at an estimated cost of $1,303,353.70. This shows that 94% of the overall 2005-2006 allocation is committed. The RT Program has experienced good participation this year and there may be some funding carried over to next year.
• The 2006-2007 estimated RT budget was reviewed and the Department is projecting that $1,635,085 will be available for landowner incentives. However, this will depend on the final state budget. With this increase from last year, the DOF proposes to increase some of the practice rates to better correspond to the actual costs of the practices, and add a couple of new practices. The proposed rate changes were discussed by the board and the State Forester will make the final decision on new rates and additional practices.

The addition of an RT practice on conserved lands generated additional discussion about the definition of conserved lands and the logistics and monitoring of the practices. Mr. Cumbia explained that the requirements for qualifying are that the land be under the protection of a conservation program and the practice lifespan would increase from 10 to 20 years with a stiffer penalty of repayment of the cost share amount plus 20%.

Ann Duff cautioned that there should be a spending cap place on this practice to insure that an un-proportionate amount of RT funds are used under this practice. She believed that there are some Ag Forestal Districts in the state that would drain much of the RT funding through this practice. Mr. Cumbia made the suggestion that the practice be limited to lands under a conservation easement. Ms. Duff also suggested that this practice be used on a limited basis as a pilot project in 2007 and evaluated the following year. Mr. Cumbia stated that DOF would limit it to 1,200 acres, 200 acres per DOF region, for a maximum funding amount of $90,000. The conservation easements must also allow timber management. The Board approved of these limits.

• Mr. Cumbia then discussed the Logger Flier that reminds all loggers in Virginia and surrounding states about the Forest Products Tax. It is not a new tax, but the DOF is hoping that the flier will better inform and encourage loggers to pay the tax. The Department will distribute the fliers through various avenues. A suggestion was made that the DOF send them out to loggers using the contact information from the logging notification program.
• Mr. Cumbia then opened discussion on the proposal to revise the tax form – Form 1034. Mr. Cumbia and Charlie Becker visited the Virginia Department of Taxation to discuss the current form and the proposed form. The proposed form would be much more user friendly and more easily completed. The Department of Taxation representatives were interested in making the changes, but not before summer, 2006. The DOF would also like to get users to review the forms to insure that they are user friendly. The DOF may also put examples and scenarios on the form instructions to make the form more understandable.
• Discussion of the tax form led into an overall discussion of the timing and support from the forestry community to propose opening the RT Code for revisions. Ann Duff explained that In order to revise the code, the legislation would also need to be revised. She cautioned that it is always risky to open a law for revision because there is a chance that other things could be changed also. Ann made a pledge to visit with individuals and organizations to gauge their interest in opening the law for the board’s proposed revisions. The DOF would need the support of the VA Forest Practices Association and the Forest Council of Virginia in order to make the revisions.

The Board members suggested that Ms. Duff have a “white paper” and some sample tax returns using the old method and the proposed method to help her gain support for opening the law. It will be important to reinforce the fact that the change that is being proposed is to make the code simpler, not to increase the tax. Dean Cumbia, Ann Duff, and Todd Groh will work to develop the white paper.

Ms. Duff also brought up the fact that three Board member’s terms will be expiring this year, Ann Duff, Thomas Jefferson III, and Charlie Rose. This is Mr. Jefferson’s second term, so he would not be eligible for reappointment. However, Ms. Duff and Mr. Rose expressed their interest in reappointment for another 3-year term. Carl Garrison said that he would be agreeable in their reappointments, and said that he would submit their names, but the decision would be made by the Governor. He said the appointments would probably be made by early July, and the members would be notified prior to the next RT Board meeting in September.

The next RT Board meeting is scheduled for Thursday, September 14, either in Charlottesville or Charlotte County. The announcement with the time and location will be sent to the members prior to the meeting.

The business meeting was adjourned at 1:10 pm.

Afternoon Field Trip

The program was turned over David Slack, Regional Forester, and Dennis Gaston, Assistant Regional Forester, for a presentation and field trip to discuss RT and land use changes. Mr. Slack began with a PowerPoint presentation that explained some of the development pressures that portions of the State are experiencing in general and Chesterfield County in particular.

Mr. Gaston led the field trip into Chesterfield County and showed the members several areas that have had a history of forest management that were now being converted into housing developments.

The field trip ended and the meeting was adjourned at 3:30 pm.

Respectfully Submitted by:
Todd Groh - Assistant Director, Forest Management
May 22, 2006

Approved: John Carroll, Deputy State Forester

Last modified: Friday, 07-Mar-2008 19:13:50 UTC