State's logging industry goes unchecked

By Ken Ward Jr.
STAFF WRITER

West Virginia loggers are cutting twice as many trees as they did just seven years ago.

But nobody is researching logging's damage to West Virginia's streams or soil. No one is monitoring the way the cutting affects the plants, animals and entire forest ecosystems in the state.

Logging operators do not have to receive state permits before they cut trees. They don't have to consider public comment before they start a clearcut. No one makes sure timber companies consider possible environmental damage before they fire up the chainsaws.

The state Division of Environmental Protection regulates strip mines, chemical plants, steel mills and dozens of other polluters.

But DEP Director Eli McCoy says his agency has little authority over loggers.

A 1992 state law gave that job to the state Division of Forestry. The agency is also supposed to promote the timber industry.

Under the law, loggers are trained in suggested "Best Management Practices" to avoid soil erosion or stream pollution. Loggers are not required to follow these suggestions. The Division of Foresty can't make them, but can fine them if they don't.

Before the law was passed, environmentalists argued that boosters of the timber business shouldn't oversee loggers. They wanted DEP to have that power.

But DEP ignored even its legal mandate to annually study whether voluntary logging best management practices work.

State Forestry Director Bill Maxey says the guidelines reduce soil erosion, stream pollution and other environmental problems.

Since the 1992 law took effect, the forestry division has trained 5,000 loggers in safety and environmental guidelines. More than 1,600 companies have obtained state logging licenses. In 1995 alone, the division investigated 577 potential violations of the logging law.

"We're not so naive as to think that everything is perfect," Maxey said. "We have had some problem cases, and a few loggers have resisted these new regulations. But the difference between now and five years ago is like night and day."

Forestry division figures tell a different story. So does a failed attempt by former DEP Director David C. Callaghan to rein in loggers.

DEP Swat Team
In late 1994, as new wood products plants continued to open in West Virginia, Callaghan complained publicly that the state didn't do enough to regulate timbering.

"I think there are significant opportunities for environmental damage out there," Callaghan said at the time. "We are deficient in the total regulatory approach and have been for a number of years."

Callaghan proposed that DEP inspect 100 timber jobs and to assess the need for more regulation. The study would, for the first time, meet the law's requirement that DEP publish an annual report on the timber law's effectiveness.

Soon after Callaghan announced his plans, West Virginia Forestry Association lobbyist Dick Waybright asked Gov. Gaston Caperton to call him off.

"West Virginia State code requires the Division of Forestry to enforce the logging law and gives the DEP authority only if the Division of Forestry fails to do so," Waybright wrote in an Oct 4, 1994, letter to Caperton obtained under the Freedom of Information Act.

"We ask that you stop this survey as it will only lead to additional criticism of forestry and will be perceived (by the loggers) as additional government harassment of small business."

Caperton didn't stop the survey. But it was certainly scaled back.

Three teams of DEP inspectors and state foresters visited 50 active and 50 completed timber jobs chosen at random from a forestry division computer list.

Between Nov. 28 and Dec. 31, 1994, the joint crews visually inspected the operations to determine if logging had caused increased amounts of soil to run into nearby rivers and streams. Inspectors did not take water samples because they weren't given enough time.

The report concluded that, "based on this limited survey, there appears to be few sediment impacts to streams adjacent to timbering operations."

According to the report, 78 of the 100 sites showed no signs of timbering causing soil to run into streams. Of the remaining 22 sites, 12 showed slight impacts, nine had moderate impact and one had significant impact.

"Some of the sites selected for inspection were located on ridgetops or otherwise at a great enough distance from a stream such that they would not be likely to contribute to sediment loading," Mark Scott, then-chief of the DEP Office of Water Resources, wrote in the report.

Scott also said the report was, "limited by the time frame of the study, the scope of the field inspection, the time of year the study was conducted, the sample size, and the lack of comparison with baseline conditions on which the streams were examined."

DEP inspectors who took part in the study were more critical of it.

Inspector Elizabeth Krafft said in a report to Scott, "While we did not find any significant impacts while completing this survey, I am not certain this survey is a true measure of the impacts.

"We were told to look at only haul roads and landings," Krafft wrote. "Many times the impact would come from other areas such as skid roads."

Inspector Brad Swiger, "Although erosion control structures are constructed upon site closure, many operators are careless about maintaining these improvements during logging activity.

"The simple and inexpensive task of revegetating landings and skid trails upon closure is not popular among the logging community," Swiger wrote. "Although this procedure is quick, effective, and aesthetically pleasing, many operators fail to utilize this practice to reduce sedimentation or improve public perceptions."

The forestry division issued a news release that declared the DEP report showed "timber harvesting operations in the Mountain State have improved substantially in terms of protecting the environment."

"This is especially true in two areas," Maxey said. "The first is the positive attitudes of the loggers. Once they know what is expected and required of them, 99 percent of the loggers have the pride to do a good job.

"The second area is very simple and is what the law was intended to accomplish: We now have substantially fewer environmental problems, especially less sediment in the streams, than in years past."

But the Feb. 27, 1995 release also said that 74 percent of the 502 complaints about logging filed with the division in 1994 were valid.

Inadequate paperwork, such as problems with licenses, certificates or improper notification of the forestry division, comprised 17 percent of the 373 cases.

Compliance orders telling loggers to fix violations of the law were issued on 264 cases, or 70 percent, of the valid complaints. In 107 instances, or 28 percent of the valid cases, the forestry division issued suspension orders shutting down the logging job because of more serious violations.

Agency credibility
Perry McDaniel, a Charleston lawyer and former forester, has complained to the DEP and the forestry division about the study.

In a letter to Maxey and Callaghan, McDaniel complained about the fact that DEP inspectors were allowed to look only at sediment impacts at the exact time of their visits.

McDaniel noted that Swiger's inspection team complained, "loggers fail to properly notify DEP of their operations as required by current law; a statewide tracking system has not been established, thereby preventing DOF from learning of the poor track record of logging operators; loggers are taking advantage of landowners by high-grading the timber; roads are placed without planning; and the trees left after logging are of poor quality and/or undesirable species."

McDaniel also noted that Swiger reported a healthy pulpwood market exists near Morgantown. This results "in the overharvesting of immature timber by operators with poor stewardship skills. Overharvesting also disturbs the filterstrip and may cause significant elevations of water temperatures in the stream," Swiger wrote.

"The public is well aware of the comments of both of your agencies that the proposed pulp mill in Mason County will not affect West Virginia's timber resoures," McDaniel wrote. "Such comments do not square with the field inspections of your own employees.

"It would be expected that an honest assessment of the impacts of the proposed timber operation would be completed by the end of 1995 so that you may present changes in current timber regulations to the legislature in order to prevent the severe and long-term damage noted by your inspectors.

There has been no other study. There has been no legislation proposed.

Juggling the numbers
Eli McCoy, the current DEP director, was deputy director and, before that, chief of water resources, under Callaghan

During a meeting in his Nitro office, McCoy handed a reporter a Post-it Note that listed the number of complaints his agency has received about timber operators.

The Post-it Note says that, of 5,865 complaints received by DEP since January 1995, only 28 specifically named logging as the problem. That's just 0.4 percent, McCoy noted.

"Go back five years and it seems to me that the number of complaints about logging that we got was growing, as was the concern from our staff about logging," McCoy said. "If [those numbers] are any indication, it really hasn't been a major issue since then, at least not from a complaint standpoint.

"I honestly feel that law they put in place has done some good," McCoy said. "And nobody is complaining to me that the Division of Forestry isn't going out and doing its job."

Mike Zeto, chief inspector for DEP, said the number of complaints might be so low because people now complain to the forestry division.

Even if people wanted to complain to DEP, phone calls to many regional DEP offices go to consolidated DEP, DNR and forestry division offices. If people mention logging, they are transferred to the forestry division.

The latest forestry division numbers actually show an increase in the number of complaints about timber jobs. They also show an increase in the number of complaints the division considers valid.

In 1995, the forestry division investigated 577 complaints about logging jobs, compared to 502 in 1994. Of that total, 457 cases, or 79 percent, were determined to be valid after the site was inspected. That's compared to 74 percent of the total 1994 cases.

Inadequate paperwork comprised about one-quarter of those valid cases. Compliance orders about violations of the law were issued in 287, or 62 percent, of the valid cases.

In 153 instances, or 33 percent, loggers were given suspension orders.

McCoy said he doesn't know if his agency will comply with the law and do an annual timber report before the end of the year.

"I hadn't thought about it," he said. "We'll look at it and see what we'll do with it."

Waybright, the timber industry lobbyist, said his members still adamantly oppose mandatory logging guidelines or further involvement by the DEP. "The problem we have with that is that most of the [DEP] people don't know what the BMPs are," he said. "They might see what they think is a bad loging job and it's really a good logging job.

"There's always going to be bad loggers out there. You can't legislate good loggers."

DEP officials say that many of their inspectors actually are forestry school graduates with a good background in timber matters.

Wendy Radcliff, the DEP environmental advocate, said, "Not only is DEP required by statute to do an annual report, but the February 1995 DEP report outlines the need for additional field investigations on a regular basis to more fully assess the impacts.

"The Office of Water Resources needs to fulfill its legal obligation and complete an annual study and report," she said.

"However, the DEP should listen to the inspectors and the previous study's inspection teams and allow them to develop a strategy for assessing the impacts. I think that when you talk to our inspectors in the field, who see timber operations on a daily basis, you will find a concern for water quality impacts from timber operations."