Company Pays Feds $520,000 for Taken Timber

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) – A company that cut trees in the Sandhills Wildlife Refuge has agreed to pay the federal government more than $520,000 for trees that were cut down without proper payment. Federal prosecutors said Thursday that Canal Wood, LLC hauled off more than 1,000 truckloads of trees it didn’t pay for from the refuge under federal contracts over the past five years. Authorities say they had to review lots of records to account for all the timber taken without proper payment. The federal government owns the 45,000-acre refuge near Cheraw and manages timber harvesting from the land.