LITTLE VALLEY — The Cattaraugus County Legislature is once again paying attention to the thousands of acres of county forests.
After years of neglect, it took an invasive insect, the emerald ash borer, to prompt county lawmakers to move to harvest stands of ash within county forests.
Last year, Legislator Joseph Snyder, R-Ischua, who is a lumber buyer for Fitzpatrick & Weller of Ellicottville, warned the emerald ash borer would soon make the ash trees in the county’s forests worthless.
He recommended hiring a firm to mark and oversee a harvest to the highest bidder for a percentage of the sale. That meant there was no cost to the county. Kane, Pa.- based Generations Forestry has already marked county forests in Portville and Ashford. There are more stands of ash that have been marked in another county forest in South Valley, Little Valley and Salamanca, and at the former Farwell landfill site in Ischua.
The Portville site brought more than $258,000 in sealed bidding, while 98,500 board feet of ash trees in the county forest in Ashford would bring in another $70,000. Snyder estimated the ash trees in the county’s forests would bring $1 million before the end of year.
Snyder said the county forests have been ignored for the past 25 years.
“I thought that with a bunch of ash on some of our county forests, we should find out where and mark them for cutting before the emerald ash borer got to them,” he said.
Some of the forests will need more management than others, Snyder said. With the right management practices, the forests will regenerate. “It’s a long, slow process,” he said.
To help manage the county forests, Legislator Vergilio “Dick” Giardini, D-Allegany, chairman of the Legislature’s Public Works Committee, and Vice Chairman Richard Helmich, R-Delevan, are sponsoring a resolution to set up a Reserve A for Reforestation.
The new account would amount to the difference between expenses and revenues each year.
Snyder said he hoped the reforestation fund could help improve access to the thousands of acres of county forests including hiking trails and other recreational activities.
