What follows is a running report from the chapters (in reverse chronological order) on their participation in the series of meetings held across the state re DEC's Proposed Regulation Reform to New York's Forest Tax Law Program.

2/26/2019 WFL's Greg Lessord and Dale Schaefer at the Finger Lakes Community College:

Good Morning All,

I attended the DEC meeting at FLCC last night. Dale Schaefer ( vice- chair WFL ) was also there. We both signed up to speak. There was a full house in attendance so word definitely got around well. The first portion was a presentation of how and when 480a came about, it's history, pros and cons and the direction DEC would like to go. They admitted to the disparity across the state as to the wide variation in how plans are approved, their oversite, how / when penalties are accessed/ remediated etc. So uniformity across the board is one goal for them.

The largest portion of the night was the public speakers input. One DEC official feverishly typed in a record of everyone’s comments, suggestions and were displayed on the big screen for everyone to see. I read the NYFOA position statement and gave a hard copy to DEC so he didn't have to try and type to keep up with me. Dale used his time to promote the benefits of NYFOA and the MFO program to the audience. Probably 20 some speakers total.

We had a question/answer period and then ended with a full half hour for people to work one on one with all the DEC staff. All the service foresters for region 8 were on hand to help as well. It was definitely a night geared around. DEC is getting our input so they can move forward in the right direction for us and them. As each meeting will have a completely different audience, I would elect someone to read the NYFOA position and if possible put in a plug as Dale did. It was a great opportunity to give us some publicity to a lot of new faces.

That's the view from here,

Greg Lessord