§5-24-4. Powers, duties and responsibilities.

The commission shall have the power, duty and responsibility to:

(a) Generally assist in the retention, expansion and attraction of forestry and forestry related industries by creating a climate for the development and support of the industry.

(b) Coordinate the current efforts to enhance and promote the expansion of the forestry industry among the several state and federal agencies, commissions, boards, committees, associations and other entities.

(c) Urge the development of multiple-use sustained-yield management plans for nonindustrial timber tracts.

(d) Develop products and markets for the grade of materials that currently comprise a majority of the state's resources.

(e) Recommend a stable and predictable tax program for both new and existing firms in the state.

(f) Develop a centralized and enhanced protection program that will reduce risks from fire and pestilence.

(g) Develop financial assistance for the attraction and expansion of new and existing secondary manufacturing facilities, with special emphasis on assistance for smaller firms employing less than twenty persons.

(h) Utilize recognized research expertise of appropriate existing educational, public and industrial institutions or agencies of the state. Research shall include economic development efforts in West Virginia, including silviculture, wood land management, forest management, the development of new products as well as other products designed to aid forestry development.

(i) Employ, if needed, and only with prior approval of the West Virginia Legislature's Joint Committee on Government and Finance, such staff as may be necessary. In the event an executive director may be necessary, such individual shall be a forestry graduate of a four-year college of forestry and shall, in addition, have administrative and research experience, preferably, but not mandatorily, with at least five years' experience in government.