|
|
People working together for social, economic and environmental justice in Tennessee
|
How to identify and report
bad logging practices
|
Citizen complaints are the key to stopping bad logging as soon as it starts!
Please call the SOCM toll free hotline 1-877-431-7626 to report bad logging
practices. We will provide you with a form to fill out that will be sent
to the state's Department of Environment and Department of Agriculture.
|
|
WHAT TO LOOK FOR AT A LOGGING SITE:
• Loggers must keep dirt and logging debris out of the water!
• A logging road should not have equipment ruts or erosion channels that deliver dirt to a stream.
• Roads should be a 10% grade or less. (Over 10% is allowed only for short distances.)
• Streams cannot be filled with logs and dirt to build a crossing.
• If equipment fords a stream channel, it must go straight across and the stream bottom should be hard or graveled.
• Stream banks should not be disturbed at a stream crossing.
• A buffer of grass and trees should be left along streams to trap sediments before they enter the water. Trees shade a stream and maintain normal temperature. Clearing the natural vegetation along a streamside can lead to streambank destabilization and severe erosion. On each side of a stream at least a twenty-five foot wide "Streamside Management Zone" (SMZ) is required.
If the slope is steep or erosion results, then more must be done to stop any mud from entering the water.
• There should be no use of skidders or other logging equipment in streams or in an SMZ or in streams or drainages.
Streams and drainages should not be used as skid trails.
• Skid trails from equipment that drags logs to a log landing should be gradual and not allow any erosion.
• Debris from logging should not be left in the stream. This is considered pollution.
• To read about the voluntary best management practices approved by the state division of forestry, go to:
http://www.state.tn.us/agriculture/forestry/bmpmanual.html.
|
You can help enforce TN law by reporting bad logging practices.
|
LOGGERS MAY BE ORDERED TO "STOP WORK":
The Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation (TDEC) has authority to order logging stopped if streams are muddied by logging operations.
The law (Public Chapter 680) authorizes TDEC to protect creeks, rivers and lakes from logging damage from mud and silt runoff.
Damage caused by heavy equipment crossing streams or tree tops left in streams will also be grounds to order a halt to the logging.
|
|
|
|
