AN ACT to increase the criminal penalty for cutting, injuring, or removing another's timber resulting in damages that exceed One thousand dollars.

The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:

SECTION 1.  G.S. 14‑135 reads as rewritten:
"§ 14‑135.  Cutting, injuring, or removing another's timber.
(a)	If any person not being the bona fide owner thereof, shall knowingly and willfully cut down, injure or remove any standing, growing or fallen tree or log off the property of another, the person shall be  punished the same as in G.S. 14‑72."
SECTION 2.  This act becomes effective December 1, 2009, and applies to offenses committed on or after that date.
In the General Assembly read three times and ratified this the 6th day of August, 2009.

	_____________________________________
		 Marc Basnight
	 President Pro Tempore of the Senate

	_____________________________________
		 Joe Hackney
	 Speaker of the House of Representatives

	_____________________________________
		 Beverly E. Perdue
	 Governor

Approved __________.m. this ______________ day of ___________________, 2009