AG wants Hart to pay for timber

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — A North Idaho lawmaker who the state attorney general says stole timber from state endowment land intended to benefit schoolchildren appears to be clear of a $22,827 bill because more than five years have passed since the state filed liens.

Republican Rep. Phil Hart of Athol said that he doesn’t owe the state anything because the logs he took and that were used to build his log home in 1996 were cut under a loophole in state law.

“It was something that was commonly done throughout Idaho history,” Hart said. “I had been told by actually a couple of different people in the logging industry that this was at least a historical practice.”

Money generated from the state endowment land is intended to benefit Idaho’s public schools.

“There was a taking of timber that belonged to the schoolchildren. It needs to be repaid,” said Idaho Attorney General Lawrence Wasden. “That debt is valid. It’s a moral obligation, even if we don’t have the ability to go after it and collect it. It’s a debt owed to the schoolchildren.”

According to court records, Hart argued a logger, whose name he couldn’t remember, told him he could legally log state endowment land without paying.

“It was a standard practice years ago, and there are a number of old-timers in the logging industry that, how should I say this, that had participated in that kind of a practice until, I guess, recently,” Hart said.

But a court ruled the 8,000 board feet of timber that Hart took “a blatant, unjustified trespass on state endowment land.”

The Idaho Court of Appeals agreed.

“The fact the (Forest Practices Act) rules did not require Hart to give notice to the (Idaho Department of Lands) before stealing state timber does not mean that he was authorized to take it,” the court wrote. “We think it important to recognize that the cutting of timber on state lands is a crime.”

The Idaho Department of Lands filed liens against Hart in Kootenai County for $22,827, a number that included the $2,443 value of the timber, work done to determine how much was taken, and court costs. The liens were never lifted.

According to court records obtained using Idaho Public Records Law, a neighbor of state endowment lands near Spirit Lake on April 16, 1996, heard machinery and went to investigate.

The noise stopped, but the neighbor got a license plate number of a red pickup and called police.

Investigators eventually traced the missing logs to Hart’s home construction site in Athol, matching tire tracks on a tractor at the site with tracks at the site of the theft. Logs were also matched to stumps on state land.

Hart told investigators at the time that individuals were allowed to log state endowment land to build their private homes.

State endowment land generated $53 million for Idaho schools this year. That includes an extra $22 million payment authorized by the state Land Board to help schools facing money woes due to state budget cuts.

Hart said citizens should be able to cut timber from state endowment lands for their private use.

“I think there should be a program for it,” he said. “I think that the people of Idaho ought to benefit from the lands.”

On another front, Hart is also embroiled in a battle with state and federal officials over unpaid income taxes, which he considers unconstitutional.