A judge has ordered Moravia Hardwoods in Moravia, Iowa to pay the state nearly $28,000 for timber harvested without permission from a state forest in south-central Iowa.
A statement from the Iowa attorney general’s office claims that Moravia Hardwoods lied to the state on a bond renewal application. The judge banned the company from buying timber from anyone for a year.
The case concerns a tract of private timber adjacent the Chariton Unit of Stephens State Forest that the company bought to harvest in 2013. Moravia Hardwoods marked the trees it wanted, the attorney general’s office said, and then directed loggers to cut the trees. But one of the loggers testified that some of the marked trees were on state land and he had informed Moravia reps.
A forestry expert found that 131 trees, mostly white and red oak and black walnut, were cut in the state forest. Their value was estimated at $25,718.50.