A unit of Lasting Forests evolving since March 30, 1999
A Total Forest Management Plan and Wildland Management Decision Support System
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Logging Management

The following is a summary of steps that will be taken to decrease environmental impacts from tree harvest activities:

1. To-prevent sedimentation, sale design and layout will include filter strips between exposed mineral soil and streams (or pond edges).

2. The Optimum Logger Low bid Sealed bids Efficient Timely (best for harvesting) No delays (consistent/dependable) Low administrative/contract costs Pre-use appraisal Research willing Timely payments Accept minimum appraised value (not site-specific) Take marked trees only Payment upon contract award (to prevent delays) or in installments with interest

   To maintain water temperatures and stable streambanks, sale design will include buffer strips along perennial streams.
3. The grade of temporary roads and main skid trails will not exceed 15%.
4. When mineral soil will not be exposed, skid trails may include grades up to 40%.
5. Users must drain roads and skid-trails to prevent erosion after use.
6. Trucks and skidding equipment must use bridges, low water crossings or culverts to cross perennial or intermittent streams. No skidding and/or trucking is permitted in any stream or stream-bed.
7. Users must obliterate temporary roads at the end of the operating season.
8. Users must re-vegetate after any roads are used.
9. Sale administrators will allow oil and gas storage, handling, and disposal only where surface water is protected.
10. Except for salvage operations, the manager will mix clear-cuts and removal cuts to 50 acres. These cuts must be widely separated, at least by manageable 10 acre or larger stands.
11. On areas of 5 or more acres with "very shallow" soil (less than 14 inches to bedrock) the manager may require that special logging equipment be used to protect the soil.
12. Except for salvage operations, the manager will limit removal cuts to a small percentage of a watershed per decade, scattering harvests among watersheds.
13. Stand prescribers and specialists will develop specific slash treatments along public roads and adjacent to private land.
14. In all cutting operations, well distributed individuals or clumps of trees for wildlife purposes will be reserved (e.g., hickory and black gum).
15. Normally, removals will not be made to stands that are less than 15 feet tall.
16. Compartment plans will identify and protect documented historical and archeological sites and potential sites found in field examination.
17. In areas with special visual qualities, the manager will:
    • Encourage harvesting operations within non-recreation seasons.
    • Insure public safety and retain recreation values when cutting in recreation complexes.
18. Attempt to preserve barriers that minimize visual contact with harvest operations and their effects.
19. Where possible, a landscape architect's recommendations will be obtained.
20. Where needed for public safety and enjoyment, timber sale activities will include road dust abatement.
21. Removal area shapes will have irregular edges to avoid linear views.
22. The manager will coordinate silvicultural practices to protect threatened, endangered, or unique species.
23. Stand prescribers will plan for retaining openings, apple trees, and existing seeps, lowland, or wetlands. Log landings and roads created by timber sales should normally be seeded.
24. Thinning prescriptions will retain important mast-producing shrub and tree species, particularly when they are minor components of the stand.
25. At least 5% of the hardwood area will be retained in conifer cover as feasible by site.

See suggestions for cable logging on steep terraine in Virginia.

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This Web site is maintained by R. H. Giles, Jr.
Last revision January 17, 2000.