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Problems continue in West Virginia with loggers who refuse to follow "best
practices" and ignore the law, according to the Coalition for Responsible
Logging. Frank Slider of the West Virginia Sierra Club says "The voluntary
enforcement of Best Management Practices is a miserable failure."
Some loggers contend they cannot make money if they abide by the statues,
while others say that is not true. The State Division of Forestry says they
could use another one million dollars and twenty more people to police the
timber industry.
Delegate Bill Stemple, according to the Charleston Gazette, says "We just
need more inspectors out there to help them. That would stop a lot of it."
Lawmakers in Charleston are considering tightening timbering laws, and a
legislative committee has been touring logging sites. Stemple is involved
with an interim study looking at the 1992 logging act.
The issue is a touchy subject in Calhoun County, where relatives and
neighbors make their living with logging. A recent trip across Cunningham
Ridge discovered a Braxton County logger skidding logs down a county
highway, blocking the road, and another operator working without a
permit.
The Division of Forestry currently monitors about 1,300 logging licenses and
3,600 timber jobs a year. Much of the logging in Calhoun and Roane County
is being done by out-of-area loggers, who get in and get out as quickly as
they can, often ignoring reasonable practices, let alone the laws.
Some logging operations consistently overload trucks for hauling out of the
county, a commonly accepted practice. Many local loggers do follow "best
practices," but since there is no frost law in West Virginia, others destroy
rural roads.
The West Virginia Department of Highways in Calhoun, Roane, Wirt and other
counties attempt to prevent road destruction, but in some areas new
blacktop and improved secondary roads have been "put down to the mud,"
according to a department spokesperson.
Highway officials contend the logging laws are so fragmented they are
virtually impossible to enforce, with many different agencies having
jurisdiction. In Calhoun and Wirt counties, the Department of Highways have
made some efforts to collect money for rock to repair rural roads.
Connie Lewis, a lobbyist for the Coalition for Responsible Logging, says she
would like to make it mandatory for loggers to follow best management
practices, but Dick Waybright, executive director of the West Virginia
Forestry Association, says adequate laws are in place.
The Coalition for Responsible Logging says if the laws are adequate, they
have not been enforced.
Lewis says residents who have complained to her group say no action is
taken against irresponsible loggers unless a complaint is filed, after which
efforts are made for compliance.
A study was made regarding logging in Calhoun about one year ago, but a
request to obtain the results from local forester Joe Taylor went unheeded,
although the West Virginia Division of Forestry in Charleston has said they
will make the report available.
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