Our Issue: THP Fees

September 26, 2011

Our Letter:

Dear Chairman Dickinson and members of the Assembly AAR Committee,

The Forest Practice Act already authorizes that the state’s forestry expenses be paid by the timber yield tax.  This was enacted in the Revenue and Taxation Code Section 38904.  The regulatory burden the state is now facing is generated primarily by reports by other agencies that overlap what the initial timber harvest permitting process does and by repeated redundancies like running archeological surveys or vegetation surveys for each harvest plan on tracts of land that have been harvested multiple times.

The regulatory burden in California has already succeeded in closing down most of its timber production market.  California has the capacity to sustainably grow all of its wood products, yet due to the current regulatory climate, the state currently imports 80% of its wood products, and all the jobs that produced that wood are also out of the state.  Last year, California produced $200 million in forest products; if we were producing at capacity, that would be one BILLION dollars in revenue. 

Many California timber companies have grown weary of the layers of bureaucracy and are investing elsewhere, planting their trees and taking their jobs to places with favorable business climates like New Zealand.

The last thing we need is more fees and more delays.  A timber harvest plan already costs around thirty thousand dollars to produce and often takes over a year to process through the agencies.  The landowner has to front this money and then hang on for that year until he can get his first payment.  Many of us are not huge timber companies; we are people who own 100 to 200 acres and we don’t have that kind of money to throw around.  If the current trends continue, we’ll be using all the wood we grow to fuel wildfires and pollute the air.

Are you sure you want to continue this trend and push what’s left of the timber industry the rest of the way out of the state?  If the existing timber taxes cannot cover your expenses, then you should address pruning the regulatory requirements.

Catherine Moore
Central Coast Forest Association

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