Winter 2017-18

www.wvfa.org Winter 2017 |  West Virginia Forestry Association Mountain State Forestry 5 W elcome to the winter edition of the WVFA Mountain State Forestry. We continue to receive positive feedback on this magazine, so please ask those businesses that are involved in the wood industry to consider advertising in this publication. As I write this, we are about to begin our 2017 area meetings around the state. These area meetings are a great opportunity for our members, members of the legislature, and those with the Division of Forestry to stay abreast of current issues and highlight successes. A welcome trend in the news this fall has been numerous positive announcements of business expansion and investments throughout the state. Such as, Bruce Hardwood Flooring announcing a $10 million expansion project creating 85 new jobs, The Great Barrel Company LLC announcing plans for a manufacturing facility in Greenbrier county and an announcement for a company to build a plant in Smoot, WV to use wood residue to manufacture biodiesel and a char product for soil application. Another positive note is the direction of the Division of Forestry to increase timber harvesting on state lands. Focus is to maintain a healthy forest with active management plans with the result of creating some revenue and providing support for a growing wood industry throughout the state. As stated in previous publications, the Association continues to work on legislation to increase haul weights with the addition of a sixth axle. Basis for this legislation is supported by research by the U.S. Department of Transportation. Additionally, we continue to work on a reduction of workers compensation premiums for WV loggers through our efforts with the WV Loggers Council. Our approach thus far has been to address the issue without legislation. We are having some success in getting all related state agencies at the table to address various reforms needed to accomplish this goal. As always, we will continue to monitor the legislative process to identify bills that could be problematic to the wood industry and to support issues that promotes the use of our most renewable resource.  Mark N. Haddix Board President A welcome trend in the news this fall has been numerous positive announcements of business expansion and investments throughout the state. Such as, Bruce Hardwood Flooring announcing a $10 million expansion project creating 85 new jobs, The Great Barrel Company LLC announcing plans for a manufacturing facility in Greenbrier county and an announcement for a company to build a plant in Smoot, WV to use wood residue to manufacture biodiesel and a char product for soil application. M E S S A G E F R OM T H E P R E S I D E N T