People have been driving out the Spur Road and illegally cutting down trees on borough land and hauling away the logs, likely for firewood, Wrangell Police Chief Tom Radke said.
In a move to combat the theft and damage to public property, the borough assembly will hold a public hearing at its meeting Tuesday, Jan. 9, on a proposed ordinance that would institute a $300 fine for illegally cutting down trees on borough land.
The ordinance would add a new section to municipal code, defining trespass to include “the cutting down, injury or removal of trees or timber from borough property without written permission.”
In addition to stealing trees, illegal cutters are damaging the drainage ditch and even the highway guardrail. “They dropped one tree right on the guardrail,” Radke said Dec. 27.
People go out at night, cut trees close to the roadway, and then drag or winch the timber to their truck, the police chief said.
Police have ticketed one cutter, but not for trespassing. Radke said the current trespass ordinance is ambiguous, and the proposed change would make clear that illegal timber harvesting is subject to a $300 fine. “It’s just to toughen up our trespass ordinance,” he explained of the measure that will go before the assembly.
“You can’t help yourself to trees on somebody else’s property,” Radke said. “It’s been going on for a while.”
The assembly on Dec. 12 accepted the ordinance in first reading and advanced it for a public hearing. The assembly could vote on the proposal at its Jan. 9 meeting.
“The ordinance has been in the works for a while,” Interim Borough Manager Mason Villarma reported to the assembly at its Dec. 12 meeting.
The proposed change in municipal law also would apply to digging or taking stone, rock or earth from borough property without written permission.
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