A unit of Lasting Forests
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A Total Forest Management Plan
and Wildland Management
Decision Support System

 		 
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Reducing Impacts of Tree Removals

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.
2. 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 revegetate after use any roads.
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 limit 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" 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 or within stands 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:
  1. Encourage harvesting operations within non-recreation seasons.
  2. Insure public safety and retain recreation values when cutting in recreation complexes.
  3. Attempt to preserve barriers that minimize visual contact with harvest operations and their effects.
18. Where possible, a landscape architect's recommendations will be obtained.
19. Where needed for public safety and enjoyment, timber sate activities will include road dust abatement.

In June, 2000, the following exchages were made suggesting work needed in the field on the ownership: Since passage of the Clean Water Act in 1972, timber has been treated as a "non-point source" of pollution, much like row crops. But the new rule would move some operations into the "point source category," which requires permits.

EPA officials had maintained that permits would be required of timber harvesters only in rare cases such as when logging roads carry sediment into a creek that already is polluted.

But industry officials said the scope of the rule could be expanded by citizen lawsuits against EPA. Under the worst-case scenario, they said, harvesters might need permits for everyday acts such as cutting or planting trees.

"This was very important to the industry nationwide," said Chuck Burley of the Northwest Forestry Association. "We'll continue to work with EPA, provide information and try to make sure that we don't get another rule, or if we do, that it's more agreeable."

J. Charles Fox, assistant EPA administrator for water, explained the agency's decision in a letter sent Thursday to Sen. Bob Smith, R-N.H., chairman of the Environment and Public Works Committee.

Fox wrote that he agreed that the rule affecting timber needed to be substantially revised. He said he planned to solicit greater input from the public before proposing the rule again.

"I am convinced that there is a need to describe this approach to the wide range of interested parties ... and to get ideas for improvements," Fox wrote.

Fox indicated that the EPA planned to move ahead with its broader regulation, which has been in development for four years. Ultimately, it could force states to demand reductions from an array of water polluters, from farms to city sewers.

Western Republicans have been the staunchest opponents of the EPA rule. But even Democrats, including Sens. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., Max Baucus, D-Mont., and Patty Murray, D-Wash., have raised objections with EPA Administrator Carol Browner.

"Senator Wyden is pleased that EPA has decided to take its time and do this the right way," said Josh Kardon, Wyden's chief of staff.

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