Sierra Pacific Industries Hopes Ruling Will Deter California Regulators
A top resource official for timber giant Sierra Pacific Industries says he hopes a judge’s scathing ruling in the company’s favor will deter overzealous state regulators.
Retired Superior Court Judge Leslie C. Nichols found the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection guilty of “egregious and reprehensible” actions while investigating the 2007 Moonlight Fire and ordered the agency to pay more than $30 million in penalties and legal fees, The Associated Press reported.
Nichols, who was appointed to the case by the state Supreme Court, said Feb. 4 that Cal Fire’s efforts to blame SPI and other landowners were corrupt and tainted, according to the wire service.
Dan Tomascheski, SPI’s vice president in charge of resources, said the company’s relations with the state’s firefighting agency have been positive.
“There are a lot of good, professional and ethical people working at Cal Fire,” Tomascheski said in an interview at the Sierra Cascade Logging Conference here on Feb. 6. “They’re one of the world’s best firefighting agencies and we need their support. This was about I think a few individuals who, in pursuing financial gain, let their vision get clouded by the prospect of extracting a large settlement from us,” he said. “I think their investigations going forward are going to be carefully done and be meticulous. There won’t be a rush to judgment. They’ll do their job.”
From Capital Press: capitalpress.com.
RELATED ARTICLES
Sierra Pacific Buys Oregon’s Seneca
Sierra Pacific Foundation Grants Scholarships
Latest News
U.S. Single-Family Housing Starts Dip, But Multi-Family Shows Strength
U.S. housing starts continued to slip in June, coming in at a seasonally adjusted rate of 1.559 million, which was down 2% from May and down 6.3% from June 2021, according to the U.S. Census Bureau and U.S. Dept. of Housing and Urban Development monthly new residential construction report…
Softwood Board, FS Announce Mass Timber Awards
The Softwood Lumber Board (SLB) and USDA Forest Service recently awarded $2 million total to six projects that highlight innovative architectural design and mass timber’s significant role in carbon reduction. According to SLB officials, lessons…
HALCO Honored For Operations Research
HALCO Software Systems was the recipient of the 2022 Omond Solandt Award in operations research from the Canadian Operational Research Society (CORS). This prestigious award, which has typically been awarded to much larger organizations like IBM and Air Canada, was in recognition of HALCO’s developments in production planning optimization methods in the forest industry…
BID Group Purchasing Smith Sawmill Service
BID Group has entered into an agreement to acquire Smith Sawmill Service. The transaction further expands BID’s product and service offerings to include the essential recurring saw and tooling capabilities required to support modern wood…
Find Us On Social
Newsletter
The monthly Timber Processing Industry Newsletter reaches over 4,000 mill owners and supervisors.
Subscribe/Renew
Timber Processing is delivered 10 times per year to subscribers who represent sawmill ownership, management and supervisory personnel and corporate executives. Subscriptions are FREE to qualified individuals.
Advertise
Complete the online form so we can direct you to the appropriate Sales Representative.