Reforestation of Timberlands Board Meeting Minutes
Department of Forestry, Region 1 Office
Waverly, Virginia
September 13, 2007

Chairperson, Ann Duff, called the meeting to order at 10:00 am. Board members present were Ann Duff, Earl Pickett, Grant Cosner, Ken Morgan, Charles Rose, Cliff Somerville, and Jim Kuykendall. Department of Forestry personnel in attendance were Carl Garrison, State Forester; Ron Jenkins, Assistant State Forester for Planning and Budget; Dean Cumbia, Director of the Forest Resource Management Division; Todd Groh, Assistant Director of Forest Resource Management Division; Ed Zimmer, Regional Forester; Toni Noreika and Scott Bachman, Assistant Regional Foresters; and Jane Wubbles, UVA Intern.

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

The minutes of the March 22, 2007 meeting were reviewed and a motion was made by Earl Pickett to approve the minutes as presented. The motion was seconded by Cliff Somerville and approved by the entire board.

Carl Garrison thanked Ed Zimmer and the Region 1 staff for hosting the meeting and then provided a DOF agency overview for the Board.

• Strategic Planning for the Department is taking a considerable amount of time. The State’s strategic plan can be found on the Governor’s website at http://www.vaperforms.virginia.gov/agencylevel. The Governor is holding all agencies accountable to their strategic plan goals and their budgets could be affected depending on their success. It has been very difficult to narrow all the responsibilities that DOF has into three goals for the Governor. The DOF is merging all active strategic management plans together to better capture all of their duties, not just those reported to the Governor.
• The Department is currently developing the budget recommendations for the next biennium. However the State’s revenue estimates have fallen short of the actual revenue and therefore all Agencies will need to make reductions in their budgets. The DOF doesn’t know what the actual shortfall is but it is estimated to be around $600 million. Agencies have been told to anticipate a 5% cut, which for the DOF would be approximately $846,000. Most of the DOF budget goes toward personnel and the DOF has made the commitment not to layoff any personnel. Reductions will be made through energy conservation, monitoring mileage and other cost saving measures.

Ken Morgan asked about the status of DOF personnel and equipment. Mr. Garrison stated that the DOF’s full-time personnel (FTE) levels haven’t changed over the last couple of years; however the Department has adjusted some position to better meet the needs of the Agency. For example, some position descriptions were altered to get additional land conservation and water quality positions. Mr. Morgan stated that the DOF needs more positions in order to cover their responsibilities. Mr. Rose asked if the newer water quality positions were multifaceted or were only concentrated on water quality. Mr. Garrison said that the position’s primary duties were with the water quality program, but their secondary responsibilities included fire duties.

Mr. Garrison comment that the DOF equipment was in fair to good shape and that the Department will begin to alter equipment purchase rotations and assignments slightly to get more fuel efficient vehicles and better match the vehicle fleet to the personnel’s job responsibilities. Mr. Morgan commended the DOF for purchasing more fuel efficient vehicles and asked if DOF had a fact sheet that outlined DOF’s budgetary and personnel needs that could be used by the board members to promote the needs. Mr. Rose and Mr. Pickett also commented that such a fact sheet would be useful. Mr. Garrison said that DOF could provide members with a DOF needs fact sheet.

Mr. Rose asked if vehicle maintenance could be done cheaper through use of the private sector. Mr. Garrison said that the possibility of using contractual help has been explored as is being used in some fire fighting situations. Mr. Jenkins followed up by saying that the contractual vehicle maintenance was not always reliable in emergency situations where DOF often times operates in. Mr. Rose acknowledged that it is difficult getting emergency help.
Mr. Garrison mentioned that he as already drafted a letter to statewide personnel explaining the budget shortfall and what step the DOF has decided to take to overcome the budget reductions. This letter will be sent out once the budget process is completed and the budget is final. Mr. Garrison offered to send this letter to the board members also.

Dean Cumbia told the Board that he would make John Carroll’s Tree Improvement Program report during the field trip.

Todd Groh updated the Board on the RT tax form adoption status and several RT budget items.

• The tax form AD-1034 was still being worked on by the Tax Department’s forms committee and therefore was not ready in time for the fourth quarter reporting. Mr. Groh stated that he will continue to work with the Tax Department to hopefully have the form ready to begin using in 2008.
• The 2006-2007 Program budget carryover was greater than anticipated due to several unanticipated factors. Mr. Groh reviewed the budget and financial reports and the carryover levels and explained the reason for the carryover in greater detail. Mr. Groh promised to monitor the RT budget more closely in the 2007-2008 program year to avoid future large carryover amounts.
• The 2006-2007 program accomplishments were presented with a total of 1,464 projects funded on 52,159 acres. Mr. Morgan requested that the Historic Funding Trends table of the report be extended to include the number of projects and acres for each year. Mr. Groh said that those two columns would be added by the next meeting.
• The 2007-2008 RT Program budget, accomplishments, and practice rates were reviewed by the board in more detail. As of the meeting date, $2,234,326.95 in incentive funding as been allocated to the Regions for pine planting and release projects. A total of $869,356.50 has been allocated on 400 projects for 16,467 acres, leaving a remainder of $1,364,970.45 in funding available to obligate.

Ms. Duff then opened the meeting for other discussion items.

• Mr. Groh brought up an issue on the horizon dealing with the forest products tax and in-the-woods chipping operations. Currently, primary processors and loggers who ship logs out of state are responsible for paying the forest products tax. However, there may be some debate on whether in-the-woods chipping operators would be considered primary processors.
• Mr. Morgan brought up a conversation that he had with a North Carolina sawmill operator who did not know about Virginia’s forest products tax. Ms. Duff also recalled a newspaper story that stated that the N.C. forestry industry as a whole didn’t know about the tax. Both members suggested that there be an increase in publicity to loggers and N.C. sawmills. Mr. Cumbia and Mr. Zimmer described the current publicity that is being done including information in the “Sharp Loggers” program, submitting information to the Virginia Forest Products Association, as well as DOF personnel handing out the information cards to all loggers who they come into contact with. Mr. Rose suggested that perhaps the N.C. Division of Forestry could help publicize the tax when they contact loggers and industry. Ms. Duff mentioned that perhaps the N.C. Forestry Association could help get the word out. Mr. Garrison said that this is a possibility, but other states are usually dealing with many of their own state issues and programs, so there may not be much emphasis placed on another state’s programs.
• In reference to the increased landowner incentive funding available, Mr. Morgan suggested increasing the publicity for the program by running newspaper ads, purchasing billboard space, preparing articles for the Farm Service Agency newsletter, and other means necessary to get landowners interested. Mr. Groh said that they would look into these options for promoting the program.
• Mr. Cumbia also brought up the idea of increasing the maximum acreage cap for RT projects. The current cap is 100 acres. This program change could not be done until the new RT Program year, so until that time, Mr. Groh and Mr. Cumbia will poll the DOF Regions to determine how many landowners this would effect and try to get an estimate on the effect it will have on the 08-09 RT budget. This information will be reported at the next RT meeting.

Mr. Garrison requested that the Board go into executive session to discuss another matter. Mr. Rose made the motion and it was seconded by Mr. Pickett and approve by all. Once the executive session had concluded, Mr. Rose made the motion to come out of executive session and the motioned was seconded by Mr. Somerville and approved by all.

A motion was made by Mr. Rose to send a letter to the Governor asking for the removal of Mr. William E. Pepper from the Reforestation of Timberlands Board based on his inactivity on the Board. Mr. Pepper has not attended a Board meeting since September 2005. The motion was seconded by Mr. Pickett and approved by all members. Mr. Garrison said that the Department would draft a letter to be signed by the Chairperson of the RT Board and send it to the Governor’s office.

The next RT Board meeting is scheduled for Thursday, March 27 2008, either in Charlottesville or Louisa County at 10:00 am. The announcement with the specific location will be sent to the members prior to the next meeting.
The business meeting was adjourned at 12:30 pm.

Afternoon Field Trip

The program was turned over to Ed Zimmer, Regional Forester and Dwight Stallard, Nursery Superintendent, for the field trip to discuss longleaf pine plantations and the Garland Gray Nursery. Mr. Zimmer introduced the Board members to Mr. Bill Owen’s 180 acre longleaf pine plantation followed by Mr. Stallard leading a tour of the Garland Gray Nursery.

Submitted by:
Todd Groh - Assistant Director,
Forest Resource Management Division
November 29, 2007

Approved: Dean Cumbia, Director
Forest Resource Management Division

Last modified: Friday, 07-Mar-2008 19:13:52 UTC