Water pollution, particularly sediment, from timber operations is a serious problem in West Virginia.

The current plan in which the West Virginia Division of Forestry only nominally regulates the timber industry is ineffective in addressing this problem.

The timber reform coalition is off and running with representatives from the Wildlife Federation, Sierra Club, Trout Unlimited, the Rivers Coalition, the Environmental Council, the Religious Campaign for Forest Conservation, and the West Virginia Highlands Conservancy discussing problems with timbering in West Virginia. With such a variety of groups, it is hard to agree on everything but the groups have agreed upon some general principles.

We should work together on legislation which would do the following:

u Make our current performance standards for timber jobs, Best Management Practices (BMP), mandatory, with fines for not following them.

u Have timber operators submit plans to the Division of Forestry showing how the BMP’s will be used. These plans must be approved before a timber job begins.

u Notice to surrounding landowners about upcoming timber jobs by letter and in the local paper to prevent timber trespass.

u Bonding required for timber jobs to cover damages with bond released upon final inspection of job.

u Enforcement of water pollution from timber jobs done by the Division of Environmental Protection rather than the Division of Forestry.

Last year a bill was introduced which would do these things. Although it was introduced too late in the session to have much chance of passing, we hope the Legislature will take action next session.

The latest news from the legislature is that House Speaker Kiss will head up a special committee on timber issues during interim sessions. The committee includes Delegate Ginny Mahan, Chairman Rick Staton of the House Judiciary Committee, and Delegate Larry Williams of the Timber Management Committee. Others will be selected by the next interim meetings on July 9,10,11. This new committee will be an opportunity to educate legislators about sediment in streams, flooding problems, timber trespass and the lax enforcement and inadequate laws that lead to these problems. Let us know if you can help with the grassroots effort to reform our timber laws and have responsible timbering in our state. Call our toll free number 1-877-WVA-LAND or e-mail: lawbot@hotmail.com