The Adirondack Council

News Release

For more information: John F. Sheehan -518-432-1770

Released, Tuesday July 2, 2002

ALBANY, NY -- The Adirondack Council today thanked Sen. Ronald B. Stafford and Assemblyman William Parment for reaching an agreement that will increase the penalty for stealing trees from the Adirondack and Catskill Forest Preserves from a paltry $10 -- a fine set in 1909 -- to a minimum $250 per tree.

The bill passed the NYS Senate today. The bill is expected to pass the Assembly when that house returns for session.

"We are grateful that -- in the final day of his final legislative session -- Senator Stafford has made it a priority to correct this long-standing injustice," said Adirondack Council Executive Director Brian L. Houseal. "He and Assemblyman Parment have agreed on new penalties for timber theft that much more closely resemble the current market value of the trees and will discourage the theft of our forests, especially the rare, high-value hardwoods and old-growth forests of the Adirondacks.

"The Adirondack Council has been urging the Legislature to pass a bill like this for many years," Houseal said. "For the first time in nearly a century, we won't be literally encouraging the dishonest to steal trees from public or private lands. The old penalty was a joke. This new one is no laughing matter."

The bill increases the penalty for the theft of trees from public and private land from $10 per tree to $250 per tree, or treble damages (three times the market value), or both. At the same time, the legislation makes the act of illegally cutting timber a Class A Misdemeanor under state law -- a criminal offense. The old law considered illegal tree cutting to be a violation, punishable only by a civil penalty. In order to seek jail time in the most outrageous cases, the prosecutor had to prove that the act constituted a separate criminal act.

In addition, the Department of Environmental Conservation or a court could require the offender to repair the damage and to pay restitution to the landowner reflecting the damage to the forest.

"Finally, we have legislation with some teeth," said Houseal. "For the past 93 years, the only teeth in this debate were on the saws of the midnight rustlers."

The $250 penalty could be waived if the defendant can prove "with clear and convincing evidence" that he or she thought the trees belonged to them or that they had a legal right to cut them. Even inadvertent cutters would still be liable for repairing the damage and reimbursing the rightful owner for the value of the trees.

An additional provision of the bill was designed to give the DEC Commissioner the opportunity to review and comment upon any proposed change in local law that restricts forest harvesting practices. While local governments would be required to wait up to 45 days for DEC to review and comment on a proposed law, local governments would not be obligated to heed the commissioner's advice.

"The Adirondack Park has a handful of town and village laws that are tougher than the timber harvesting requirements enforced in the rest of the Park by the Adirondack Park Agency," Houseal said. "We are pleased to see that this bill does nothing to prevent other towns from enacting similar protective measures. It only requires that state officials be given a chance to advise them on the decision. Once they have that advice, they are free to do as they wish."

The bill would go into effect March 1, 2003.

The Adirondack Council is an 18,000-member, privately funded, not-for-profit organization dedicated to protecting and enhancing the natural character and human communities of the Adirondack Park through research, education, advocacy and legal action.