WHEREAS the provincial government by regulation under the Forests Act charges all individuals a $10 non-refundable fee for each load of coniferous logs harvested from privately owned lands and hauled on public roads;AND WHEREAS the regulation requires individuals to acquire and complete elaborate TMPL-1 and TMPL-2 forms for each load of coniferous logs;AND WHEREAS these TMPL-1 and TMPL-2 forms are used by Alberta Forest Service to track the sale of coniferous wood to ensure it is not taken from Crown land and sold outside Alberta;AND WHEREAS a more simplified TM-9 form, available free of charge, is used for all other wood harvested (amounting to approximately 95% of total volume harvested);

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the Alberta Association of Municipal Districts and Counties petition the Provincial Government to amend “Timber Management Regulation AR 60/73 S1; 163/85, to eliminate the use of the TMPL-1 and TMPL-2 forms and establish the use of the TM-9 form for all timber harvested from private or Crown land.

Up until 1994 the Alberta Forest Service had used a standard timber hauling TM-9 form to record all timber logged from private and Crown land and hauled on a public road. This included all species of wood. In 1994, because of public concern over the volume of logs sold and leaving the province, the government reacted and instituted the timber hauling record TMPL-1 and load tag TMPL-2 forms, which apply only to coniferous wood harvested from private land and hauled on a public road.The permits require:1. A completed form for each load at a non-refundable fee of $10.00 each. (If you miscalculate the number of loads, you will either have a surplus of forms purchased with no refund or not enough which would necessitate another trip to Forestry’s office to purchase, complete and sign additional forms.)2. The loads be weighed or scaled. (If you do not have access to company scales or a government scale you would have to hire a licensed scaler, which could cost in the neighborhood of $300.00 per day plus expenses.)3. Signatures of all owners registered on the title of the land being logged. (This can create an inconvenience and additional cost to the landowner who may have joint ownership and live far from the property being logged.)4. The return of all copies whether used or not within 30 days of the expiry date. (If for any reason you haven’t been able to harvest and haul the logs in the time frame allotted the money paid is forfeited.) 5. Each load be placarded with the TMPL-2 tag.The purchase and use of the TMPL-1 and TMPL-2 forms are costly, complicated, unnecessary, and ineffective for the reasons they were established. It imposes a hardship on the private landowner who wants to sell private wood.The use of the more simplified TM-9 form would suffice (refer to attached forms).

The AAMDC has no resolutions currently in effect with respect to this specific issue.

Alberta Forest Service informed us on 27 Jan 2005 that the new Timber Management Regulation has scrapped the requirement for TMPL-1 and 2 forms on log hauls from private land.