LITTLE VALLEY — Cattaraugus County is nearing $500,000 in revenue this year for timber harvests in county forests focused on ash trees.
County lawmakers approved a $115,326 bid Wednesday from Gutchess Lumber Co., Cortland, for ash and other marked trees around the former Farwell landfill.
With nearly $500,000 in timber harvests out to bid and three other county forest sites waiting to be marked, the total this year could be close to $1 million, officials said.
The Public Works Committee sponsored the resolution accepting the timber bid.
One committee member, Joseph Snyder, R-Ischua, has been leading the charge on ash sales before they succumb to the emerald ash borer, an invasive species first found in New York state in Randolph nine years ago. It has since spread to other parts of New York and the Northeast.
The county forests, amounting to thousands of acres, haven’t been actively managed in more than a decade.
“I think this is a great bid,” he told legislators before the vote. Gutchess has a lumber yard in Freedom, Snyder said.
There was concern after the Chinese government imposed a suspension of the import of logs into China the same days the bids for the timber were sent, Snyder said, but that appears to have been dodged.
“This could have gotten tangled up in the tariff business,” he added. “The price is holding.”
Of the 200 acres at the Farwell property in Ischua, Snyder said about half was forested, populated principally by ash. “There is also going to be a light cut of other species,” he said.
That will help manage the forest for wildlife, public use and long-term goals, he added. “We’re not just chasing money here.”
Snyder, a lumber buyer for Fitzpatrick & Weller Co., urged county lawmakers more than a year ago to consider doing an inventory of ash trees in county forests before the emerald ash borer rendered the trees worthless.
Besides the Farwell property, the county legislature previously accepted bids for ash on county forests in Portville and Ashford. There are still bids to let in Little Valley, Salamanca/Great Valley, and South Valley, where there are four parcels.
“We’re still chasing the ash,” Snyder said after the meeting.
Proceeds from the first sale in Portville went into the general fund, but the legislature approved a policy of banking the proceeds from timber sales for future forest management costs.
One of the first purchases will be to buy new equipment for the Department of Public Works survey crew to use to survey and post the boundaries, Snyder said. The survey equipment will also be available to use for highway purposes.
IN OTHER ACTION, legislators:
(Contact reporter Rick Miller at rmiller@oleantimesherald.com. Follow him on Twitter, @RMillerOTH)
