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Newsletter November 2007

THE CUTTING EDGE:
News From Around the Woods for the Progressive Logger
A publication of the Northeast Master Logger Certification Program
Katherine Albert, Editor
masterloggercertification@msn.com
(207) 688-8195
www.masterloggercertification.com

November 17, 2007 - Coalition for Lower Fuel Prices 9:00am Knights of Columbus Hall Lincoln, ME.

December 6, 2007 - Forestry Equipment Update - the latest and greatest Forest Resources Association; Update your knowledge of environmentally friendly forestry equipment and BMP tools. Jeff's Catering, Brewer. Contact Joel Swanton for details: jswan93426@aol.com or (207)745-2435.

December 10, 2007 - Deer Wintering Areas in Maine 9:00am-4:30pm Sponsored by Center for Research on Sustainable Forests and Cooperative Forestry Research Unit. Contact Spencer Meyer for details or to register: spencer_meyer@umenfa.maine.edu or (207)581-2861.

Dear Northeast Master Loggers:
Since October 1, the Maine Master Logger Certification Program has been operating with its new identity as the Northeast Master Logger Certification Program. We have coordinated with the Southern New England Master Logger Certification Program (MA, CT, RI) to create one standard for the region so that all Master Loggers in the Northeast will be operating to the same standard. The transition has been smooth so far, and it has highlighted areas of focus as we prepare for a year and a half long standard revision project. This project will ensure that the kinks in the measurability of our standards have been worked out and that our standards reflect the updated concerns of industrial and environmental stakeholders in active forest management in the northeast.

Last week we had our annual SmartLogging audit and learned, from an outsider's perspective, what we are doing well and what still needs work. Safety and water quality continue to be areas where Master Loggers excel, yet we were not able to demonstrate that we document harvest planning to the level that our standards say we do. Written harvest plans are the key to the international and industry-wide recognition of MLC as a credible source of responsibly harvested fiber. Some form of written contract, and written pre- and post-harvest plans are now mandatory to maintain your Master Logger status. We have a template for written harvest plans (the Harvest Integrity System, or HIS), which is available on our web site (www.masterloggercertification.com) or by contacting Kate (207-436-0400).

Within the next month, our new and improved web site will also be on-line. Check it out in December to see the new look and easier-to-use site that is one piece of the overall growth of the MLC program. By December, we will also have a permanent office at Pineland Farms in New Gloucester and a new staff member to help us run the program more efficiently and at a higher level of outreach.

Finally, in the next two weeks, you will be receiving a short survey that we need in order to report on the annual production of Master Loggers in Maine. You will receive instructions for filling the survey out on-line through our web site OR you may mail the survey in or respond to it by telephone. Please keep your eyes out for the survey and respond to it at your earliest convenience. It is data that we will be collecting from ALL current MLC companies. Feel free to call Kate with any questions or concerns about this survey.

The rest of this newsletter highlights some important current issues. During our SmartLogging audit, we discovered some confusion about the current rules for Forest Operations Notifications. Please take the time to make sure that you understand the rules and that you are filing FONs on all of your operations. We also have an editorial by Sandy Brawders and a call to action by Master Logger Brian Souers regarding rising fuel costs. The time is now to get involved in the budding efforts to make a difference for loggers. If you can make it to the Knights of Columbus Hall in Lincoln at 9am on November 17, join the Coalition for Lower Fuel Prices!

Do I have to file a Forest Operations Notice (FON) if I am clearing houselots?

In almost every case, the answer is YES! Unless you live on the lot you are clearing AND are clearing fewer than 2 acres or partially cutting fewer than 5 acres—only on the lot you actually inhabit—you have to file a FON. See the excerpt from the rules below—and the link for the whole document at the bottom if you have further questions:

11. If I am harvesting wood on my own land, do I need to file a Forest Operations Notification?

Answer: Yes, unless you are specifically exempted under the so-called "small woodlot owner exemption." This applies only to owners of small woodlots who personally harvest small amounts of wood (2 acres of clearcut or 5 acres of partial cut) from their woodlots on an annual basis. MFS interprets this section to apply only to harvesting on woodlots, not areas used or planned for conversion to residential areas or other development.

Justification: 12 MRSA §8883-B, sub-§6 states in part:

"5. Notification exemption. The following activities are exempt from the notification requirement under this section:

"...C. Harvesting performed by the landowner1 within a 12-month period when the total area harvested on land owned by that landowner does not exceed:

(1) Two acres if the residual basal area of acceptable growing stock over 4 1/2 inches in diameter measured at 4 1/2 feet above the ground is less than 30 square feet basal area per acre; or

(2) Five acres if the residual basal area of acceptable growing stock over 4 1/2 inches in diameter measured at 4 1/2 feet above the ground is more than 30 square feet basal area per acre."

12. If I am a logger clearing house lots or road rights-of-way in an approved development, do I or the landowner(s) need to file a Forest Operations Notification?

Answer: Yes, unless you are specifically exempted by the so-called "houselot exemption." When the landowner resides on the lot and plans to clear a small amount of additional area, or cut a few trees related to the use of the land as a houselot, or in situations where there is no house but where the landowner possesses a building permit and plans to clear the lot for houselot purposes, a Forest Operations Notification is not required.
http://www.maine.gov/doc/mfs/pubs/pdf/fpa_interp.pdf

Trip Tickets and the Law: Sebois Plantation Logger Pleads Guilty in Timber Case
October 26, 2007
A logger from Sebois Plt. plead guilty today in Ellsworth District Court for failing to pay for trees harvested on a woodlot in Dedham.

John Buck, age 35, entered guilty pleas on three counts of failing to pay for trees harvested, and one count of failing to file an intent to harvest forest products notification, according to the Maine Forest Service. According to Rangers, Buck was contracted to cut wood on the property of John Darty of New Smyrna, Florida, on a woodlot he [Darty] owns in the Hancock County Town of Dedham. Using trip tickets documenting the transportation of the delivered loads to log yards in Bucksport and Hermon, Ranger John Cousins was able to determine that the loads were delivered in March and April of this year but that the landowner never received payment for them. The value of the three loads was determined to be in excess of $1500.

Maine law requires that loggers make full payment for each load of wood delivered to a mill or log yard within 45 days. This new law, enacted in 2006, allows Maine's Forest Rangers to immediately and directly deal with loggers who attempt to defraud landowners of proceeds from harvests conducted on their property. According to District Ranger Jeff Currier, past timber theft cases were either handled as thefts, as violation of Maine's wood measurement rules or handled by landowners themselves in small claims court. "By having this law, Forest Rangers can investigate cases, request prosecution at the District Court level, and collect restitution for landowners upon conviction in a relatively short period of time," Currier said.

Maine law also requires that loggers, upon making payment, provide landowners with a scale slip for each load made out by the person that scaled the wood. Additionally, truck drivers who haul the wood are required to make a trip ticket for each load. "The trip ticket serves as a written chain of custody for a load of wood, and is probably the best tool for Rangers to track wood shipments and ensure that landowners are compensated for each load. Rangers routinely check trip tickets at mill sites across Maine to ensure that they are being completed and that they are done so in an accurate manner," Currier said.

Buck has already paid the landowners restitution for the loads, and was ordered to pay $1000 in fines for the law violations.

Coalition for Lower Fuel Prices
Editorial by Sandy Brawders
Contact: (207) 688-8195

Can an independent trucker named Albert Raymond and his wife Belinda, hauling forest products, be the catalysts to move the rest of us from whining to action on fuel prices? That is exactly what is happening in Lincoln, Maine, the home base of the Coalition for Lower Fuel Prices.

Meeting for the first time November 17th at 9am at the Knights of Columbus Hall in Lincoln, Maine, this call to action is spreading and reaching out to small business, big business, teachers, school boards, town councils, farmers, fisherman, loggers, paper companies, fixed income citizens, retail stores, community leaders, non profits etc. You get the picture! Hardworking citizens of Maine who are parents, grandparents and neighbors woke up last week to the outrageous attack on the US economy by oil and those who control it.

Before the economies of the US and of Maine collapse from the bottom up, before the grass roots of our communities are beaten down, before the oil price attacks escalate, the Coalition for Lower Fuel Prices want to discuss, get immediate answers and generate a strategy for the following questions at the meeting on November 17th at 9am:

Why has US and Maine Homeland Security not called a state of emergency for this act of domestic terrorism and begun emergency action?

Why have surcharges and gasoline taxes not been suspended for a 90 day period until long-lasting solutions can be put in place?

Why have the strategic oil reserves not been tapped to bring prices back to profit levels, not domestic terrorism and greed levels?

Why have alternative energies not been given a HUGE green light and our energy independence given primary priority as was the space program in the 1960's?

Why do we suffer leaders whose only solution is to set up a task force led by people with no power to act?

Why is Congress not even discussing a tax credit to offset the increased cost of fuel for primary producers?

Why is no one realizing everything moves in this country fueled by oil and something has to be done? Businesses small and large cannot keep absorbing this cost!

We act like a State and Country which are energy poor when in fact we are energy rich. Maine has hydro power, biomass power, wind power, wave power, solar power, cellulosity, and gosh knows what else if we prioritized and made it happen! No leadership is galvanizing citizens to demand the investment in a five year energy independence program for Maine, for the US. No more reports! No more task forces that do nothing! Albert and Belinda Raymond want action and by God we owe it to them and all of us to act now!

Capitalism is great when it is defined as achieving profits in a free market. When capitalism becomes greed it needs to be corrected through the courts. When capitalism becomes domestic terrorism and erodes our way of life, then action—emergency action—is required. Instead of being the walking wounded, get in the car November 17th, be in Lincoln, Maine at 9am at the Knights of Columbus Hall, and let's work in a town meeting format on a citizen strategy that is innovative and immediate. No task forces need apply!

To All Concerned People of Maine,
November 3, 2007

Fuel prices are going through the roof.

They are hurting us at work and at home.

There is a grass roots effort starting up to get our political leaders to work with us to get fuel prices DOWN!

They need to know how important this is because they have lots of other things to occupy their attention.

Please call and let them know you need LOWER FUEL PRICES’Ķ NOW!

Call:

Governor Baldacci: 287-3531

Senator Susan Collins: 224-2523

Senator Olympia Snowe: 224-5344

Representative Mike Michaud: 225-6306

Your call counts. Do you want to know why? Because generally people won't call until things are really bad. So when you call you get their attention!

Also, if you choose not to call, you simply lose your right to complain about the high cost of fuel.

I hope and trust you will help the effort by making a few simple phone calls.

Respectfully,
Brian Souers

Newsletter

Coalition for Lower Fuel Prices... read

Forestry Equipment Update... read

Deer Wintering Areas in Maine... read

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Headlines

12/04/2007 Volvo backs energy efficient forestry machinery... read

07/04/2007 Coming Soon: EPAT 2.0... read

07/03/2007 Metafore and The Gagliardi Group co-author "The Paper Consumer's Guide to Climate Change"... read

Standards in Focus

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Written Safety Plan

Documentation of Harvest Planning

Use of the Maine Natural Areas Program