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                                                                    EXHIBIT 31.1

                                  CERTIFICATION

I, Ron E. Hooper, certify that:

1.       I have reviewed this quarterly report on Form 10-Q of Williams Coal
         Seam Gas Royalty Trust, for which Bank of America, N.A., acts as
         Trustee;

2.       Based on my knowledge, this quarterly report does not contain any
         untrue statement of a material fact or omit to state a material fact
         necessary to make the statements made, in light of the circumstances
         under which such statements were made, not misleading with respect to
         the period covered by this quarterly report;

3.       Based on my knowledge, the financial statements, and other financial
         information included in this quarterly report, fairly present in all
         material respects the financial condition, distributable income and
         changes in trust corpus of the registrant as of, and for, the periods
         presented in this quarterly report;

4.       I am responsible for establishing and maintaining disclosure controls
         and procedures (as defined in Exchange Act Rules 13a-15(e) and
         15d-15(e)), or for causing such controls and procedures to be
         established and maintained, for the registrant and I have:

         a)       designed such disclosure controls and procedures, or caused
                  such disclosure controls and procedures to be designed under
                  my supervision, to ensure that material information relating
                  to the registrant, including its consolidated subsidiaries, is
                  made known to me by others within those entities, particularly
                  during the period in which this quarterly report is being
                  prepared;

         b)       evaluated the effectiveness of the registrant's disclosure
                  controls and procedures and presented in this quarterly report
                  my conclusions about the effectiveness of the disclosure
                  controls and procedures, as of the end of the period covered
                  by this quarterly report based on such evaluation;

         c)       disclosed in this quarterly report any change in the
                  registrant's internal control over financial reporting that
                  occurred during the registrant's most recent fiscal quarter
                  (the registrant's fourth fiscal quarter in the case of an
                  annual report) that has materially affected, or is reasonably
                  likely to materially affect, the registrant's internal control
                  over financial reporting; and

5.       I have disclosed, based on my most recent evaluation of internal
         control over financial reporting, to the registrant's auditors:


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                                                                    EXHIBIT 31.1


                  a)       all significant deficiencies and material weaknesses
                           in the design or operation of internal control over
                           financial reporting which are reasonably likely to
                           adversely affect the registrant's ability to record,
                           process, summarize and report financial information;
                           and

                  b)       any fraud, whether or not material, that involves
                           management or other employees who have a significant
                           role in the registrant's internal control over
                           financial reporting; and

         In giving the certifications in paragraphs 4 and 5 above, I have relied
         to the extent I consider reasonable on information provided to me by
         Williams Production Company.



Date: November 13, 2003              By: /s/ RON E. HOOPER
                                         ---------------------------------------
                                         Ron E. Hooper
                                         Senior Vice President and Administrator
                                         Bank of America, N.A.


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