Native Virgin Islands trees are valuable and need protection, according to Sen. Myron D. Jackson, who is sponsoring a bill to establish a Community and Heritage Tree Law.
Mario Francis, chairman of the V.I. Urban Community Forest, Inc. spoke in support of the bill at the Committee on Government Affairs, Veterans, Energy and Environment hearing Monday.
He said his biggest concern for native trees was the lignum vitae, which has been used for various medicinal purposes. He said it has become rare in the territory because when the bark was being used to treat venereal disease, the trees were plundered.
Also of concern to Francis was what was happening to the wood from island mahogany trees. Sen Samuel Sanes, chairman of the committee, opened the hearing questioning whether there were contracts concerning the extraction of mahogany wood from the territory.
Carlos Robles Commissioner Virgin Islands Department of Agriculture, said he knew of no contracts. Francis also said he knew of no contracts but sure it was happening.
When asked for details about his assertion, Francis said many mahogany trees were cut down in the area of the airport, stacked up neatly, then “disappeared.” He said someone made “good money” from those trees.
Robles said he, too, had heard such reports but they were just words and none “substantiated.” He said because there was usually no paper work, it was hard to verify what happened to some trees.
Virgin Islanders used native trees for many things ranging from baskets to drinks to medicine, according to Francis.
“The bill is so long overdue,” he said. “The Virgin Islands is the last remaining U.S. state or territory without a tree ordinance.”
All senators at the hearing – Sammuel Sanes, Tregenza Roach, Marvin Blyden, Alicia “Chucky” Hansen, and Janette Millin Young – voted to move the bill favorably forward to the Rules and Judiciary Committee.
However, as Hansen made the motion to move the bill forward, she stated that further favorable votes on the bill were contingent on amendments being added. One section which appeared to irritate Hansen was a clause stating that “automatic entry to private property” would be allowed in certain instances.
The bill is presently unfunded. Robles was asked if Agriculture Department had budgeted to pay for the two arborists it calls to be hired. Robles said salaries for arborists would between $42,000 and $50,000 each and “No,” he had not budgeted for them.
Testifiers and senators agreed, if the bill was to go into effect, a large education program would have to be initiated to alert residents to the fines they would be assessed if the law was not followed.
In the text of the bill it was noted that trees “provide a haven for wildlife and provide citizens with psychological relief from the increasing complexities of the man-made urban environment. Heritage trees are a people’s living connection with their past and previous generations.”
One of the intentions of the bill is to “establish and maintain the maximum sustainable amount of tree cover on public lands, specifically the public right-of-way along roadsides and land around public buildings.”
Two other pieces of legislation were scheduled to be discussed at the hearing, but because of a Seaborne flight being canceled the senator who would have presented the bills was unable to make the meeting. The bills were tabled.
One bill would have banned plastic drinking straws and not allow the sale of reusable drinking straws in the territory, and the other was in reference to government construction in the public rights-of-way.
The meeting was held in the Cardiac Care Center Conference Room at the Juan Luis Hospital on St. Croix.
