New timber harvesting standards topic of SWOAM meeting

PARIS — Keith Kanoti, water quality specialist for the Maine Forest Service, will explain the changeover to the new statewide standards for water quality regulations for timber harvesting at a meeting of the Western Maine chapter of the Small Woodland Owners Association of Maine at 7 p.m. January 17 in Room 118 at Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School.

For the last several years, towns have been voting on whether to accept Statewide Standards or stay with their own water quality ordinances. If they accept, enforcement of water quality regulations for timber harvesting will be taken over from town code enforcement officers to the Maine Forest Service as of January 1.

If towns have voted to keep their own ordinances, they will continue to enforce those ordinances after January 1. Enforcement of water quality regulations in unorganized towns has already moved over from LURC to the Maine Forest Service on November 1, 2012.

The meeting is free and open to anyone. For further information, call Merle Ring at 743-5976 evenings.