by Caroline Pufalt
Ozark Chapter Conservation Chair, ExCom
Late in 1998 Governor Carnahan took a bold step in creating the Missouri Governor’s Advisory Committee on Chip Mills. Now, at this writing in June, 2000, the committee has just released its “revised final draft report.” As the title suggests, the draft report has been revised from its December, 1999, version. Readers may remember that in December, 1999, when the first draft report was released, it was discovered that the Missouri Department of Conservation had an internal chip mill “study” in process that had not been revealed to the committee. That controversy resulted in a time extension for the committee and thus a revised draft.
Recommendations in the current draft include:
Update the State Forestry Law to include greater encouragement for best management practices.
Establish a state Forest Resource Council to provide an ongoing forum for discussion of forest issues, to advise various levels of state government on forestry issues, and to coordinate forest related research in Missouri.
Establish an interagency task force to update the definition of Best Management Practices (BMPs) for logging in Missouri.
Require BMPs on logging operations covering 40 contiguous acres with 50% or more canopy removal.
Try to improve the state’s data base regarding forest resources and logging operations, including studying chip mill source areas and encouraging voluntary reporting.
Legislation is needed to establish the authority for determining the characteristics of the timber used by high capacity chip mills.
Encourage voluntary certification for loggers.
Establish a registry for professional foresters in Missouri.
Several recommendations promote landowner education, especially in chipmill source areas.
Several recommendations encourage developing value–added timber products in Missouri, encouraging reductions in paper use, and promoting alternative fibers.
Consider using a portion of the soil conservation funds produced by the Parks And Soils Tax to protect soil productivity in forested areas.
Reduce tax liability for landowners who use BMPs
Looking only at the recommendations endorsed by the majority of the committee, the results can be judged as modest since such common sense items as mandatory BMPs, required preharvest notification, a moratorium on new chip mill permits, and stronger regulations of chip mills as industrial facilities are missing. But for those who followed the sometimes rocky history of the committee, a more generous judgment is possible. Also knowing the difficulty with which some of these topics are approached in Missouri, one can appreciate that some progress was made. Still, in light of the problem at hand and the need for the state to move forward soon to thwart the effects of chip mills, the committee’s recommendations fall short. It was especially disappointing to see that in the final voting, input from the Missouri Department of Conservation was not more progressive. At this writing, we have only the draft report to review. Perhaps the final report, expected in July, will be a bit more up to the task.
What can be determined to be a success is the committee process itself. Over its 18 month tenure the committee heard from a variety of speakers and took a field trip to see on–site some of the issues under consideration. Committee meetings were open and accessible to the public — as were the minutes and related studies the committee reviewed. The Missouri Department of Natural Resources, which took the lead in the mechanics of the committee and public participation, should be commended for their effort. Given the diverse membership of the committee and the complex nature of the subject matter, the decision making process itself was sometimes quite difficult and slow. But that seems to be inevitable in this sort of process.