Tag: Timber

April 14, 1875: Hallie Davis Marries Stephen Elkins, Creating Business Empire

On April 14, 1875, Hallie Davis married Stephen Elkins, bringing together two powerful political families. Hallie Davis was the eldest child of Henry Gassaway Davis, a U.S. senator and one of West Virginia’s richest men. She grew up primarily in the Mineral County town of Piedmont and in Frederick, Maryland. When she met Stephen Elkins, he was serving as a delegate to Congress from the New Mexico Territory. They later lived in Washington and New York.

Despite the fact that Davis was a Democrat and Elkins was a Republican, the two families created a business empire driven by coal, timber, and railroads. Since many of their investments were in West Virginia, the Elkinses relocated to the new town of Elkins and built a sprawling mansion named Halliehurst in 1890. In 1895, Stephen Elkins was elected to the U.S. Senate from West Virginia.

After his sudden death in 1911, the legislature appointed the Elkinses’ son Davis to fill his senate seat.

In 1926, Hallie Davis Elkins donated Halliehurst and a $25,000 endowment to Davis and Elkins College. She died in 1933 at age 78.

Logger Faces $43K Fine for Safety Citations

Federal workplace safety officials are proposing a $42,600 fine for a West Virginia logging company.

The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration announced the 18 violations against Switchback Timber Inc. in a news release Monday. The issues were found at the Bradley-based company’s operations in Dorothy.

The administration says Switchback failed to train employees in first-aid and CPR, an issue it was cited for in 2013.

It says the company failed to provide leg and face protection; ensure workers wore hardhats; ensure bulldozer drivers buckled up; fully enclose bulldozers to prevent driver injuries, and keep workers from having multiple passengers on machines meant for just one person.

Prentice Cline, OSHA’s area director in Charleston, said the CPR and first aid requirements are particularly important because of the company’s remote worksite.

Pardee Resources Sells West Virginia Sawmill to Hamer

Pardee Resources has sold a sawmill in West Virginia to The Jim C. Hamer Company.

Philadelphia-based Pardee announced the recent closure of the sale on Wednesday in a news release. Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed.

The company says Hamer also will have timber harvesting rights under a 10-year agreement on 62,000 acres of timberlands owned by Pardee near the sawmill in Curtin.

Kenova-based Hamer has operated the sawmill since 1984 under a lease. Pardee has owned the sawmill since 1955, when it was built.

Pardee president and CEO Carleton P. Erdman says in the release that continued ownership of the sawmill didn’t fit with the company’s strategy of owning and managing commercial timberlands.

Timber County Payments Down After Subsidy Expires

West Virginia and 40 other states are losing money after Congress ended subsidies to counties that contain national forest land.

Agriculture officials announced Thursday that the U.S. Forest Service is distributing more than $50 million to 746 timber counties nationwide. That’s compared with about $300 million during the final year of the Secure Rural Schools subsidies program.

West Virginia is set to receive about $282,000 this year, down from about $1.97 million last year.

For decades, the Forest Service has paid a quarter of its logging revenues to counties with forest land to be used for roads and schools. About 20 years ago, with logging being reduced to protect the spotted owl and salmon, Congress began approving the subsidies.

Efforts to renew the subsidies died in Congress last month.

Natural Resources Committee Passes Bills to Protect Timber, Regulate Fertilizer

The Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee looked at two bills intended to protect two different resources.

The first bill the House Agriculture and Natural Resource Committee considered on Wednesday was Senate Bill 353.

The bill would define timber theft in the state and give the Division of Forestry the authority to investigate and enforce penalties of theft in state forests.

Under current code, the division must hand over investigations to other law enforcement agencies.

When asked how many thefts have occurred in the 60,000 acres of state forest in the past five years, West Virginia Division of Forestry Director Randy Dye said that that statistic could not be tracked due to current classifications. However, he did relay one particular theft on a state forest in Wayne County.

“Cabwaylingo, as an example one state forest, we have five documented cases where approximately 100,000 dollars worth of timber was stolen,” Dye said. “We, the Division of Forestry, did not have the authority to investigate that.”

The bill was passed and referred to the Judiciary Committee.

The committee also discussed House Bill 4523 that would allow the Agriculture Commissioner to make rules regulating lawn fertilizer containing phosphate and establish the penalties for violations.

The hope is that those rules would align with other states such as Maryland in order to prevent runoff pollution into water sources.

Some delegates were concerned that without phosphate, lawn care would become difficult. However, Vice-Chair Mike Manypenny explained that without phosphate, lawns could still receive the nutrients they need.

“Your lawn is going to stay green because the nitrogen and there is going to be residual phosphate in the soils,” Delegate Mannypenny said.

The bill was approved and sent to the Judiciary Committee.
 

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