Not a clear-cut issue: Legislature considers SOCM bill
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One of the main goals the environmental groups hope to attain is the ability to determine what companies are employing the technique, where it is occurring, and perhaps most importantly, the extent of state forest land that is being affected by clear cutting.
Environmental group Save Our Cumberland Mountains (SOCM) is sponsoring one such bill, called the Tennessee Forest Resources Protection Act, which is currently moving through the state legislature.
According to the SOCM Web site, at www.socm.org, this bill, (HB 1159-McDonald/SB 934-Fowler) would require any new, or expanding, chip mills that come to Tennessee to apply for a permit. The permit would only be granted if it can be shown there is enough timber in the area surrounding the chip mill to feed the mill without having a negative impact on local communities. The bill also requires existing mills that produce or consume over 50,000 tons of pulpwood a year to register with the state.
The bill does not put any regulations on local sawmills, landowners or loggers. The permit provision of the bill only applies to chip mills that have the capacity to use 80,000 tons of pulpwood or more in a year. The bill will not cost taxpayers anything.
“It’s something SOCM has worked on for 10 years already,” said SOCM member Marvin Ellis. “We’re making the best progress this year than we have in any of the previous years, but it’s still, we think, an uphill battle. We’re not sure whether it will get passed this year or not.”
Ellis said this bill is something SOCM feels strongly about since there is currently no regulation in Tennessee at all.
“We feel it’s something that the state needs,” he said. “If you want to cut my hair, you’ve got to have a license from the state. All you need is a chainsaw if you want to go out and cut trees.”
The bill is getting some pretty hefty opposition, including the Tennessee Chamber of Commerce. The Chamber’s Wayne Scharber, who deals with environmental issues, said the organization did take a negative stance on the bill as first drafted, but there had since been some amendments that could address some of the Chamber’s issues with the legislation.
“Our concern is whether it will affect Tennessee businesses,” Scharber said.
There are those in the industry who say clear cutting is only part of the overall picture.
“Clear cutting is not the heart of the issue,” said forester Ben Myers of Studer Management Services, a Dunlap-based company which advises landowners on management of their timber resources, and then harvests and markets the materials. “It’s the size and sustainability of each landowners property that could be affected.
“I always like to talk in examples,” continued Myers. “If someone owns 500 acres, I don’t think it’s a good idea to cut 500 acres. But it that person cuts 50 acres, and then cuts another 50 acres in five more years, then that’s a good thing, because they can get a better return on that land.”
Even so, Myers agrees clear cutting is an aesthetic issue as well as an environmental one.
“It’s an ugly thing, clear cutting itself,” he said, but noted it was a good tool to control the makeup of forest land, since one can utilize several methods to develop hardwood forests or pine plantations depending on what the landowner wanted. “You’re selling yourself short if you cut out clear cutting.”
Ellis said the SOCM legislation is not designed to ban clear cutting.
“We’re not trying to go out and say you can’t clear cut,” he said. “It is not a property rights issue. We’re not saying that individual owners can’t harvest their trees.” Ellis said SOCM merely wants to make sure our forest land is sustainable for many years to come and not susceptible to over-harvesting.
The next story in this series will be on the effects of clear cutting locally.