H. B. 4542
(By Delegates Amores, Manuel, Stemple, Williams,
Varner, Mahan and Staton)
[Introduced February 19, 2002; referred to the
Committee on the Judiciary.]
A BILL to amend article one-b, chapter nineteen of the code of
West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as
amended, by adding thereto a new section, designated section
twelve-a, relating to additional criminal penalties and
sanctions which may be imposed for certain specified
violations of said article.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That chapter article one-b, chapter nineteen of the code of
West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended,
be amended by adding thereto a new section, designated section
twelve-a, to read as follows:
ARTICLE 1B. SEDIMENT CONTROL DURING COMMERCIAL TIMBER HARVESTING
OPERATIONS
.
§ 19-1B-12a.
Criminal penalties.
(a) After the first day of July 1, 2002, any person who
knowingly or willingly:
(1) conducts timbering operations or purchases timber or
buys logs for resale in this state without holding a valid license from the director of the division of forestry, as
required by subsection a, section four of this article;
(2) conducts timbering operations or severs trees for sale
at a location in this state, without providing the director of
the division of forestry with notice of the location where the
timbering or harvesting operations are to be conducted, as
required by section six of this article;
(3) conducts a timbering operation in this state that is
not supervised by a certified logger who holds a valid
certificate from the director of the division of forestry, as
required by section seven of this article; or
(4) continues to conduct timbering or logging operations in
violation of an existing suspension or revocation order that has
been issued by the director of the division of forestry or a
conference panel under sections five, ten or eleven of this
article;
is guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction thereof shall be
fined not less than two hundred fifty dollars and not more than
five hundred dollars for each violation.
(b) For the purposes of this section, each day that a
person conducts logging or timbering operations in this state
without a valid license, without the supervision of a certified
logger, without providing notice of the location to the director
of forestry, or in violation of an outstanding suspension or
revocation order shall constitute a separate offense.
(c)
In addition to any other law-enforcement agencies that
have jurisdiction over criminal violations
, any forester or
forest ranger employed by the division of forestry, who, as a
part of his or her official duties is authorized or designated by
the director of the division of forestry to inspect logging or
timbering activities, is hereby authorized to issue citations for
any of the listed violations set forth above that he or she has
personally witnessed.
The limited authority granted by this
section to employees of the division of forestry to issue
citations to enforce the provisions of this section does not
include the power to place any individual or person under arrest,
or engage in other law enforcement activity.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to make the knowing or
willful conduct of logging and timbering activities in this state
without a proper license or certification from or notification to
the director of the division of forestry a misdemeanor, and make
the continued conduct of logging and timbering activities in
violation of an existing suspension or revocation order issued
pursuant to said article a misdemeanor; set forth sanctions and
penalties for the same; and grant certain employees of the
division of forestry the authority to issue citations to enforce
the same.
The proposed section is new; therefore, underlining and
strike-throughs have been omitted.