A pair of bills seeking to rein in the authority of the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency moved through the legislature Wednesday, with bipartisan support from the same list of lawmakers who have publicly expressed anger over the agency’s plans to clear public lands earlier this year.
A measure by Republican Rep. Paul Sherrell and Sen. Paul Bailey would require the state wildlife agency to deposit all proceeds from timber sales into the state’s general fund, instead of remaining within the agency’s budget. TWRA earns about $900,000 a year from lumber sales on public land.
Sherrell and Bailey represent Sparta, Tenn., where TWRA plans to raze 2,000 acres of forest in the nearby Bridgestone Firestone Centennial Wilderness Area, drawing outrage from hunters, hikers, tourism officials and environmental groups.
A second bill, by Sherrell and Rep. Kelly Keisling, R-Byrdstown, would bar the agency, whose law enforcement arm enforces game, fish and wildlife laws, from seizing boats, trucks, planes, RVs, cars or other motor vehicles of the suspects. without court order.
While it’s unclear how much of these assets are seized by TWRA with or without a warrant, the agency earns approximately $163,000 at the auction of seized items annually, according to a tax memo accompanying the bill.
Both measures passed easily in the Senate Committee on Energy, Agriculture and Natural Resources on Wednesday.
TWRA spokeswoman Jenifer Wisniewski said agency officials continued to work with the bills’ sponsors but otherwise would not comment on whether TWRA supports or opposes them.
The bills are among a handful of proposed policy changes that would place restrictions on the agency’s authority, introduced by Democratic and Republican lawmakers since conflict over agency stripping plans erupted in the fall.
Sen. Heidi Campbell, a Nashville Democrat, has introduced similar bills requiring lumber sales to be deposited into the general fund and placing restrictions on TWRA auctions of property seized from those suspects. Those bills did not advance. Since then, Campbell has signed on to support the Republican lawmakers’ measures.
TWRA has come under another scrutiny and censure from lawmakers this year.
In January, a letter to TWRA from a bipartisan group of 34 lawmakers accused the agency of “failing in its duty to protect Tennessee’s natural wildlife,” “an embarrassing lack of communication and transparency,” and said lawmakers’ concerns they had been “received with deaf ears.”
The letter criticized agency officials’ lack of response to lawmakers’ concerns and questions about their clearance plans.
Then last month, Sen. Steve Southerland, R-Morristown, in a public hearing, directed agency leaders to discuss any logging plans on Bridgestone land with lawmakers before proceeding. Southerland is the chairman of the Tennessee Senate Committee on Energy, Agriculture and Natural Resources.
The Bridgestone Firestone Centennial Wilderness Area, located near Sparta, Tenn. and adjacent to the Virgin Falls Natural Area, it contains about 16,000 acres, most of it forested.
A series of bills would require the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency to deposit proceeds from timber sales into the state’s general fund and restrict the agency’s ability to seize private property without a warrant.
TWRA made no formal public announcements of its plans to cut in the area. Local hunters first saw the spray-painted cut marks on trees in August, then obtained an unreleased TWRA map illustrating the location of 2,000 acres to be razed in the popular recreation area that officials say Local tourism is essential for the local economy.
Plans called for creating savannah on the property, with few trees, to create habitat for northern bobwhite quail, a game bird whose populations have declined in Tennessee, along with other animal and plant species that thrive in grassy habitats.
After public pushback, TWRA officials have announced a pause on those plans.
The agency oversees hunting and fishing licenses, wildlife and habitat management, and more than 100 wildlife management areas and refuges throughout Tennessee that range in size from about 50 acres to more than 625,000 acres.