HB 1095-S2 - DIGEST

(DIGEST AS ENACTED)

Finds that chapter 4, Laws of 1999 sp. sess. strongly encouraged the forest practices board to adopt administrative rules that were substantially similar to the recommendations presented to the legislature in the form of the forests and fish report. The rules adopted pursuant to the 1999 legislation require all forest landowners to complete a road maintenance and abandonment plan, and those rules cannot be changed by the forest practices board without either a final order from a court, direct instructions from the legislature, or a recommendation from the adaptive management process.

Finds that, in the time since the enactment of chapter 4, Laws of 1999 sp. sess., it has become clear that both the planning aspect and the implementation aspect of the road maintenance and abandonment plan requirement may cause an unforeseen and unintended disproportionate financial hardship on small forest landowners.

Finds that it is in the state's interest to help small forest landowners comply with the requirements of the forests and fish report in a way that does not require the landowner to spend unreasonably high and unpredictable amounts of money to complete road maintenance and abandonment plan preparation and implementation.

Requires that the existing policy committees of the senate and house of representatives that deal with natural resources issues must review and study the implementation of this act, including checklist preparation and the meaning of both defined and undefined words in chapters 76.09 and 76.13 RCW, and report to the legislature by January 2004.