The rule would ban buying land, stripping it of timber and selling within five years.
FARMINGTON – Most people at a hearing here Tuesday night spoke against a rule to essentially ban buying forest land, stripping it of commercial timber and selling it within five years.
While some were in favor of the proposed rule, others believed it would cripple an already struggling industry in the Maine woods.
“It’s a solution looking for a problem,” said Fred Hardy of New Sharon.
The Maine Department of Conservation and the Maine Forest Service held the first of three public hearings at the University of Maine at Farmington. More than 50 people attended the three-hour discussion.
In response to An Act to Promote Stewardship of Forest Resources enacted in 2003, the proposed rule would establish standards to substantially eliminate the practice of liquidation harvesting.
Liquidation harvesting, as defined by the state Legislature, means “the purchase of timberland followed by a harvest that removes most or all commercial value in standing timber, without regard for long-term forest management principles, and the subsequent sale or attempted resale of the harvested land within five years.”
While many are exempt from the new rules, parcels which are bought, cut and sold within five years and do not follow certain exemption guidelines require harvest standards.
Those standards include: limiting harvesting to 40 percent of the stand, as it existed when the parcel was bought; or, a harvest plan signed by a licensed forester; or, showing a hardship created by an emergency. Land bought or sold before the enactment of the rules would not apply to the requirements.
Most argued that instead of guiding the forest industry, the new rules would place strict requirements on landowners and deter potential buyers.
Some suggestions included raising the proposed 40 percent limit to 60 and real emphasis was put on educating landowners rather than imposing rules on them.
“We need more answers and not more regulations,” said James Robbins of Dixfield.
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