                                 CODE OF VIRGINIA

COUNTIES AND CERTAIN CITIES TO PAY ANNUAL SUMS FOR FOREST PROTECTION, ETC (§
10.1-1124)

A. Upon presentation to its governing body of an itemized statement duly
certified by the State Forester, each county in this Commonwealth, or city which
enters into a contract with the State Forester under &#xA7; 10.1-1125 to provide
forest fire prevention, shall repay into the state treasury annually any amounts
expended in the preceding year by the State Forester in such county or city for
forest protection, forest fire detection, forest fire prevention and forest fire
suppression, not to exceed in any one year an amount measured by the acreage,
computed, beginning July 1, 2008, upon the basis of seven cents per acre of
privately owned forests in the county or city and beginning July 1, 2009, nine
cents per acre, according to the most recent United States Forest Survey. In any
additions or deductions of acreage from that given by this survey, any land,
other than commercial orchards, sustaining as its principal cover a growth of
trees or woody shrubs shall be considered forest land, irrespective of the
merchantability of the growth, and cutover land shall be considered as forest
land unless it has been cleared or improved for other use. Open land shall be
considered as forest land when it bears at least 80 well-distributed seedlings
or sprouts of woody species per acre. The amounts so repaid by the counties or
cities into the state treasury shall be credited to the Forestry Operations Fund
for forest protection, forest fire detection, forest fire prevention and forest
fire suppression in the Commonwealth and, with such other funds as may be
appropriated by the General Assembly or contributed by the United States or any
governmental or private agency for these purposes, shall be used and disbursed
by the State Forester for such purposes. In cities this subsection shall be
subject to &#xA7; 10.1-1125.

B. In any case in which the State Forester and the governing body of any county
or city cannot agree upon the additions or deductions to privately owned forest
acreage in a particular county or city, or to changes in forest acreage from
year to year, the question shall be submitted to the judge of the circuit court
of the county or city by a summary proceeding, and the decision of the judge
certified to the governing body and to the State Forester, respectively, shall
be conclusive and final.

HISTORY: Code 1950, § 10-46; 1964, c. 79; 1984, c. 715; 1986, c. 567; 1988, c.
891; 2008, c. 254.