New law allows forestry owners to demonstrate land boundaries with purple markings
The color purple
South Carolina has joined with 12 other states in adopting a purple paint law as a means of protecting forest landowners from trespassers.
South Carolina has 12.9 million acres of forest land and more than 200,000 forest landowners, who provide the foundation for the state’s $21 billion wood and paper products industry. Unfortunately, however, trespassing onto private timberland is a problem across our state.
Gov. McMaster recently signed into law House Bill 3291, known as the purple paint bill. The law allows property boundaries to be marked with “a clearly visible purple-painted marking.”
The marks “must be affixed to immovable, permanent objects that are not more than 100 yards apart and readily visible to any person approaching property.” The markings may be used in lieu of traditional signage that can be removed or destroyed by weather, etc.
Purple was chosen for two reasons: purple is not a color used in the practice of forestry, and purple is likely to be seen by people with color blindness.
The Forestry Association of South Carolina, working with Rep. Tommy Pope and Senator Wes Climer, actively supported the enactment of this new law.
Cam Crawford, Forestry Association of S.C., Columbia
Pay attention
The ongoing climate crisis will impact some places more than others.
As leaders from a coastal state, I hope Senators Lindsey Graham and Tim Scott are well versed in the potential damage that South Carolina will sustain if climate change is not mitigated.
This damage will result from flooding, extinction of native species, introduction of new pests from more tropical climates and an influx of climate refugees into the western part of the state from both within and outside of the state.
And, of course, besides the local impacts, climate change will impact humanity throughout the globe.
We need our senators to stop working for success in the next election cycle and start working to help the American people and lead the free world.
Lee Hugar, Columbia
Police state?
Humans have made and consumed alcoholic beverages since prehistory and, as we learned from Prohibition, no law can stop all alcohol consumption.
Humans have cultivated and consumed cannabis since prehistory and, as we seem to finally be learning, no law is ever going to put an end to cannabis use.
LGBTQ people have always been part of the human race, and no law will ever stop people from making love with the persons that they are attracted to and love.
Abortion has always been with us, and always will. No law is ever going to stop some women from choosing to terminate their pregnancies.
Criminalizing alcohol or cannabis consumption, consensual sexual acts or abortion requires the construction of some elements of a police state to investigate the private behavior of citizens and to enforce the prohibitive laws.
The government has no business in our bedrooms or our gardens.
Jeff Koob, Columbia
Authoritarian fear
I have watched each of the Jan. 6 hearings, and I’ve become more disturbed about the state of our country with each hearing. Then I read Levitsky and Ziblatt’s disturbing book ”How Democracy Dies.”
The authors trace the history of countries in which their democracies died, and they listed four warning signs of the rise of an authoritarian leader. Donald Trump met all four signs.
Even more disturbing, however, is that neither Senator Graham or Scott, or any of our South Carolina representatives, except for Rep. Clyburn, has fulfilled his constitutional duty to stop Mr. Trump’s attempts to destroy our democracy.
Unless our elected officials follow the oath they swore, we will fall further and further into authoritarian rule, and our partisan politics will continue to destroy our country.
Stan Frick, Columbia
