Runoff causes logging shutdown
Shannon Brennan
Tuesday, December 13, 2005
Lynchburg News & Advance

A logging operation in the George Washington National Forest in northeastern Amherst County was shut down late last month after neighbors complained that soil was washing into the road and Statons Creek, a nearby trout stream.

Statons Creek flows into the Pedlar River, which fills the reservoir that provides Lynchburg with its drinking water. There was no indication the runoff from the operation had an adverse impact on the Pedlar Reservoir, city officials said.

Amherst resident Roy Stivers said contractors were cutting a road into the forest off Virginia 633 for a timber sale, but they were doing it in the rain without safeguards against erosion. Mud was pouring into the road, the ditches and the creek, Stivers said.

"It was a hell of a mess," he said. "... I didn't want the whole hill to run off."

The work was being done Nov. 28, the day before a storm dumped 10 inches of rain on parts of Amherst and Nelson counties.

Stivers and others called the U.S. Forest Service to complain, and the Forest Service told the contractor to stop work, according to Kara Chadwick, district ranger for the Glenwood-Pedlar Station.

"We don't allow activities when the ground is too wet," Chadwick said. "They should not have been out there operating in those conditions."

Chadwick said loggers are required to put in water bars and other mitigation measures to prevent runoff into streams, but that didn't happen in this case.

"Once we found out, believe me, my staff was out there," she said.

Shenandoah Hardwood Lumber of Buena Vista, which purchased the timber on 105 acres during the Upper Pedlar Timber Sale, was the responsible party, Chadwick said. She called this an "isolated incident."

Mark Honosky, forester for Shenandoah Hardwood, said the incident was "not a big concern." He said there was no water coming off their road and the shutdown was "just the nature of working outside."

The company has installed straw and hay bales, and will put in water bars before work resumes, Chadwick said.

Tim Mitchell, director of utilities for the city of Lynchburg, said this timber operation was far enough away from the Pedlar that there was no debris or obvious impact, but added, "I wouldn't be surprised if some of the sediment made it to the reservoir."

The city is always concerned about logging operations that might affect its reservoir, Mitchell said. A 2003 survey showed that about 1.4 million gallons of sediment are deposited annually, a relatively small amount in the 1-billion-gallon reservoir, he said.

The city will likely do another survey of the Pedlar in five years to get a better handle on what impact sediment is having on the 100-year-old lake, Mitchell said.

Stivers and Bob Fener, who lives near the Pedlar Reservoir, question why the Forest Service was having a timber sale in a heavily used recreation area near Statons Creek Falls, and only about 10 miles from Lynchburg's primary water source.

"The Forest Service should not have put that piece out to bid," Fener said.

Chadwick said the sale fit in with the forest management plan to provide better habitat for turkeys by thinning out some trees and leaving others, primarily white oaks.

Fener said the pine bark beetle and wooly adelgid, which feeds on hemlocks, have done enough natural trimming.

Stivers said there are plenty of turkeys in the valleys nearby. "Cutting the national forest just doesn't seem right," he said.

Stivers, who lives in a wooden house and cuts firewood, said he doesn't object to logging when it's done right. That didn't happen here, he said.

"It really looks like crap," he said.


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More Info: Additional details and pictures can be found on the Virginia Forest Watch webpage for the Glenwood-Pedlar Ranger District.