§19-1B-12a Criminal penalties. - West Virginia Statutes

§19-1B-12a. Criminal penalties.
(a) After the first day of July, two thousand two, any person who knowingly or willingly commits one of the following violations is guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon conviction thereof, shall be fined not less than two hundred fifty dollars and not more than five hundred dollars for each violation:

(1) Conducts timbering operations or purchases timber or buys logs for resale in this state without holding a valid license from the director of the division of forestry, as required by subsection (a), section four of this article;

(2) Conducts timbering operations or severs trees for sale at a location in this state, without providing the director of the division of forestry with notice of the location where the timbering or harvesting operations are to be conducted, as required by section six of this article;

(3) Conducts a timbering operation in this state that is not supervised by a certified logger who holds a valid certificate from the director of the division of forestry, as required by section seven of this article; or

(4) Continues to conduct timbering or logging operations in violation of an existing suspension or revocation order that has been issued by the director of the division of forestry or a conference panel under section five, ten or eleven of this article.

(b) For the purposes of this section, each day that a person conducts logging or timbering operations in this state without a license that is required by this article, without the supervision of a certified logger as required by this article, without providing notice of the location to the director of forestry as required by this article, or in violation of an outstanding suspension or revocation order shall constitute a separate offense. (c) In addition to any other law-enforcement agencies that have jurisdiction over criminal violations, any forester or forest ranger employed by the division of forestry, who, as a part of his or her official duties is authorized or designated by the director of the division of forestry to inspect logging or timbering activities, is hereby authorized to issue citations for any of the listed violations set forth above that he or she has personally witnessed. The limited authority granted by this section to employees of the division of forestry to issue citations to enforce the provisions of this section does not include the power to place any individual or person under arrest.