Tahoe panel imposes $160,000 fine for illegal logging

Thursday, March 23, 2000 | 9:59 a.m.

The bistate Tahoe Regional Planning Agency imposed the fine in line with a recommendation from Jerome Waldie, the California Senate Rules Committee's appointee to the TRPA.

Waldie, who held an evidentiary hearing in late January, suggested a $2,000 fine for each of 80 alleged violations during a logging project last spring. The former congressman said the loss of the old-growth trees created "a great sense of deprivation."

All but one of the TRPA governing members voted for the fine. Panel member Drake Delanoy, a Las Vegas lawyer, argued that the fine should have been higher.

Last March, the TRPA authorized the removal of dead and dying trees from 113 acres the Tahoe City Public Utility District owned near Homewood. The district contracted with the Menasha Corp., a logging company based in Grass Valley, Calif., to handle the job.

TRPA officials said 49 old-growth trees were illegally harvested in violation of an ordinance protecting trees greater than 30 inches in diameter.

TRPA staffers also alleged that 19 trees felled posed no threat to life or property and that 16 loads of felled timber were hauled away without proper approval.

Menasha representatives have repeatedly disputed the agency's criticism of the logging project.

"Our assessment of the timber harvest isn't close to their assessment," said company executive Mark Salyer.