Published: November 18, 2008 09:18 pm      

Year-long forest study to aid in ‘strategic plan’

CHARLESTON — By the time the new calendar is exhausted, state Forester Randy Dye hopes to have an all-encompassing view of where West Virginia’s massive forests stand.

One month at a time, his staff and various entities plan to explore about dozen topics affecting the woodlands.

Given West Virginia’s landscape, that is no small mission.

Forests blanket fully 78 percent of the state, with 12 million acres, and the timber industry is one that feeds the economy by a whopping $4 billion a year, with, at last count, some 30,000 jobs.

“We’re the third most forested state in the nation,” Dye told reporters, after speaking briefly Tuesday to the Forest Management Review Commission, in an interims meeting.

“We’re looking at 12 million acres and that includes state, federal, private lands, industry lands. In one meeting, the next one, the topic will be an inventory. We’ll break down the ownership. The forest industry doesn’t own it all. Coal doesn’t own it all.”

In fact, Dye said, the bulk of the forest acreage is in the hands of small, individual owners.

“Grandma and grandpa,” he said.

Dye faced an immediate challenge when he outlined groups taking part in the specific studies and there was no environmental one in the lineup.

Don Garvin, representing the West Virginia Environmental Council, confronted Dye about this, after learning only the Nature Conservancy was included.

“They’re not an advocacy group,” Garvin said. “We are.”

Dye assured reporters that Garvin or any other environmental outfit would be allowed input as the talks progress.

“I consider myself an environmentalist,” the state forester said.

“If you look at the list of industries, they’re foresters and foresters are environmentalists. They care for nature and the environment. That’s the reason they went into the profession. The sustainability effort indicates that it’s more than just cutting trees, sawing timber and making a dollar.”

Besides, he said, the bigger profit a forester exacts, the more money that can be plowed back into conservation.

“Maybe in the rush to get started on this project, and we were given a very quick time line, I didn’t identify all the groups or individuals that should be,” Dye said.

“We welcome their input.”

No such comprehensive study has been performed since 2001, when Dye took office, and this one will include the help of the U.S. Forest Service, industry, the West Virginia University Division of Forestry and Natural Resources, the Division of Natural Resources, the state Agriculture Department, Department of Mine Reclamation and others.

“Industry is going through a change,” Dye said.

“The world economy is going through change, with the state of the banking industry, which impacts housing starts, which impacts forest products.”

By month, the topics Dye and his team of committees will pursue are:

December, the timber inventory; January, taxation of forestland; February, the primary forest industry; March, the secondary forest industry; April, forest ecology; May, threats to the forest; June, reclamation of damaged lands; July, urban forestry; August, regeneration of the state’s forests; September, silvicultural guidelines for managing forests; October, forest management and wildlife; November, tree marking guides for hardwoods; and December, strategic plan for the sustainability of forests.

“We’re in a very sharp downturn,” Dye said, referring to the meltdown on Wall Street this month.

“So we want to hang on as best we can and position ourselves to fully utilize the resource and assist industry so we can be ready when business returns.”

— E-mail: mannix@register-herald.com