Update on Efforts to Repeal the MFL Leasing Ban
The draft bill currently being developed to update the Managed Forest Law DOES NOT include language to rescind the ban on the leasing of private lands in the program. Read the language that WAFO offered to the bill to rescind the leasing ban. Landowner testimony could be key to seeing the law changed.
Although exact times and locations have not yet been set, the bill authors, Rep. Jeff Mursau (Chair of the Assembly Environment and Forestry Committee) and Sen. Tom Tiffany (Chair of the Senate Forestry Committee) are hoping to hold the first hearings on the bill in Madison on December 8th and in Antigo on December 16th.
We hope many of you will be able to attend one or both of these hearings to testify about why this bill needs to include language about rescinding the ban on leasing. The idea of testifying can be overwhelming, but we will be happy to prepare you for this by holding a one hour-long pre-hearing meeting to discuss how is all works. We have also widely distributed Leasing Ban Talking Points on why this needs to be done.
Stay tuned. We’ll let you know as soon as the bill is formally introduced and the actual hearing dates and times when they’re available.