Virginia Code 10.1-1163: Exemptions from article.
A. This article shall not apply to any acre of land on which there are present at the time of final cutting of the timber 400 or more loblolly or white pine seedlings, singly or together, four feet or more in height.
Terms Used In Virginia Code 10.1-1163
- Evidence: Information presented in testimony or in documents that is used to persuade the fact finder (judge or jury) to decide the case for one side or the other.
- in writing: include any representation of words, letters, symbols, numbers, or figures, whether (i) printed or inscribed on a tangible medium or (ii) stored in an electronic or other medium and retrievable in a perceivable form and whether an electronic signature authorized by Virginia Code 1-257
- Person: means any landowner, owner of timber, owner of timber rights, sawmill operator, sawmill owner, veneer wood operator, pulpwood contractor, or any person engaged in the business of severing timber from the stump. See Virginia Code 10.1-1162
- State: when applied to a part of the United States, includes any of the 50 states, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, and the United States Virgin Islands. See Virginia Code 1-245
- Tree: means any tree of a currently commercially valuable species which is six inches or more in diameter. See Virginia Code 10.1-1162
B. This article shall not apply to any person who clears or who procures another to clear his land for bona fide agricultural or improved pasture purposes or for the purpose of subdividing such land for sale for building sites. For the purpose of this article, evidence of intent of bona fide agricultural or improved pasture use shall require, as a minimum and within twelve months from the date of completion of commercial cutting, that the land intended for such use be cleared of all trees, snags, brush, tree tops, and debris by piling and burning or otherwise disposing of same, or by enclosing the area with a well-constructed fence and planting grass seed thereon so as to make a bona fide improved pasture. In the case of clearing for building sites evidence of intent shall be the construction of dwellings or other bona fide structure in progress or completed within two years from the date of completion of commercial cutting.
C. This article shall not apply to land which has been zoned for a more intensive land use than agricultural or forestal use.
D. The provisions of this article shall not apply to any acre or acres of forest land for which a planting, cutting or management plan has been prepared, designed to provide conservation of natural resources, and which plan has been submitted to and approved by the State Forester previous to the cutting of any trees on the acre or acres concerned. If such plan has been submitted to the State Forester by registered or certified mail and he has not approved the plan, or disapproved it with a statement in writing of his reasons therefor, within a period of sixty days from the date of submission, the plan shall be deemed approved and shall be effective for the purposes of this section.
E. The State Forester may grant exemptions from this article to individual landowners who wish to grow hardwoods on their property. The State Forester may place conditions on the exemption as he deems advisable for the conservation of natural resources.
Code 1950, §§ 10-81, 10-82, 10-83; 1950, p. 58; 1952, c. 412; 1956, c. 75; 1960, c. 244; 1988, c. 891; 1996, c. 285; 1997, c. 146.