A commercial logging bill left “in limbo” has been declared dead for the session. Senate Bill 270, which would have allowed commercial logging in state parks to pay for park maintenance, was left in the Senate’s Natural Resources Committee about three weeks ago, when Committee Chairman Mark Maynard, R-Wayne, said he didn’t know when the bill would move or be voted on.
It never left the committee and is dead “from our end,” said Jacque Bland, communications director for the state Senate. Crossover day, the last day for a bill to pass out of the chamber it started in, was Wednesday. “It procedurally cannot be advanced this session,” said Mike Woelfel, D-Cabell, who sits on the Senate’s Natural Resources Committee and has been vocal about his opposition to the bill.
The original version of the bill, sponsored by Senate President Mitch Carmichael, R-Jackson, and Senate Minority Leader Roman Prezioso, D-Marion, would have allowed the Division of Natural Resources to sell timber from the state parks. A committee substitute narrowed the bill down to a pilot program at Watoga State Park, where an average of four trees per acre could be logged.
The bill was introduced at the request of Gov. Jim Justice. It drew criticism from the start, including from West Virginia Agricultural Commissioner Kent Leonhardt. “Our parks are in dire need of repairs and improvements but we need to explore all other avenues first,” he told the committee Feb. 12.
A group of opponents sent out a news release Wednesday after the bill didn’t pass out of Senate. “The ill-conceived SB 270 accomplished one thing, which was to demonstrate how many West Virginians appreciate and feel a deep personal connection to our state parks and their beautiful, mature forests, as these citizens combined their voices into a groundswell of passionate opposition to this proposal to allow commercial logging in our parks,” said Jim Waggy, of the Kanawha Forest Coalition.
From the Charleston Gazette-Mail: https://www.wvgazettemail.com/news/legislative_session/wv-legislature-axes-state-parks-logging-bill/article_b8815320-16c0-55b4-9421-da41329817ba.html