Issue 2
| In This Issue: |
The horse logger minimizes environmental damage during skidding by using a mechanical arch that suspends the forward end of each log during skidding to reduce topsoil disturbance. Skidding saw length segments creates a path, which disappears by the next season.
Directional felling protects the immature timber left free to grow after such harvesting.
This method provides for the highest financial return for the long term management of your forestland investment, while preserving its recreational and aesthetic appeal.
Come see a demonstration of horselogging from 10:00-3:00 on November 6, with a rain date of November 13, on Donna and Rodney Robbins' land at 3560 Cove Road in the Whitehouse Communiity of Rutherford County, NC.
For further information call Caroline Edwards at 828-247-0067
On August 19, 1999, CCRC, along with members of the Hickory alliance and Dogwood Alliance participated in press conferences and flyovers before a public hearing in Raleigh held by a federal commission studying southeastern forest and their sustainability into the next century. The purpose of the meeting was to gather input on how to conduct the study. The study is to be completed by June of 2001 and is strictly a scientific assessment of forest practices.
CCRC is primarily concerned with the community welfare part of the study. The community issues being: logging truck safety; deterioration of roads and bridges; local tourism which communities depend on to support their economic base; noise; compromised air quality; water degradation due to excessive clear-cutting which causes sedimentation and siltation; reduced property values; and decreased stocks of fish and other wildlife habitat.
On September 7, Lynn Faltraco took the community issues to Richmond, Virginia to give a presentation before a subcommittee studying impacts of chip mills. The presentation consisted of the same issues listed in the previous paragraph. Also included were non-market values, local taxes and tax incentive packages for timber companies. The reception given Lynne by the sub-committee was discourteous. Questions asked of her were asinine at best with one question being," Would you like a golf course in your neighborhood?"
Corporations have an "industry portfolio" of what they are looking for when they are interested in locating and building a chip mill in a certain area. Some of the items are: economic distress, low voter registration, high illiteracy, average base salary of $16,000 or less, high unemployment rates, and lack of any land management plan or zoning regulations. Do these qualifications sound familiar?
In Janurary, the Environmental Management Commission (EMC) ruled on our case; agreeing that the North Carolina Division of Water Quality incorrectly revoked Godfrey's general stormwater permit; but upholding that he must apply for an individual wastewater permit. Godfrey appealed this decision to NC superior Court in February. Then, in March, Hickory alliance filed as respondent in Godfrey's appeal against the EMC; and the court date was postponed due to the judge's rotation in the district.
The Attorney General's office notified the judge that the general stormwater permit, which expired August 31, 1998, could not be extended; it must be replaced with a new permit. This notification implies that not just Godfrey, but all 13 existing chip mills are without general stormwater permits, subject to citizen suits because they are operating without a permit. DENR is writing a new general permit, but as of September 1, there is still no permit.
Thus, Godfrey and the NC Forestry Association (an industry group of which most NC chip mills are a part as an intervenor) versus EMC with Hickory Alliance as intervenor) has been pushed back to the fall, and we will need everyone's support at the end of our legal battle.
In February 1999, the Virginia Legislature passed House Joint Resolution 7630, "Establishing a joint subcommittee to study the impact of satellite chip mills on Virginia's economy and environment."
The study committee established by the resolution is composed of 133 members, including 6 legislators and 7 citizens. The citizen members, appointed by the Speaker of the House, are to include two representatives of the environmental community (Rupert Cutler and myself); one from the solid wood industry; one from the pulp and paper industry; and two private forest owners, one of whom will represent the Virginia Farm Bureau, and the state forester, as an ex-officio member.
The committee is to examine: other states' experiences with satellite chip mills; current and potential impacts on Virginia's economy, natural resources, and environment, the potential impacts on private forest landowners; and practical methods for ensuring the economic and environmental sustainability of the state's forests. The study is to last two years, and direct costs will not exceed $12,000.
The first two meetings of the study committee, in July and September, were, to say the least, contentious. The one or maybe two legislators who don't represent the timber industry seem uninterested in the proceedings. Everyone else, other than Rupert and me, are industry lackeys. They are rude to invited speakers who dare to present information that suggests chip mills might not be a good thing to have in your neighborhood, or that clear-cuts are damaging, or that there could be a better form of economic development in Appalachia. They talk and laugh during presentations, and leave before the meetings are adjourned.
The Pittston chip mill in Dickenson County is the poster child for the chip mill issue. Located in far southwest Virginia, Dickenson County has long been victimized by the coal and timber industries.
Pittston Coal Company, which owns 75% of the land in Dickenson County, has plans to take the mountains down to get out the coal. A mountaintop removal coal mine permit requires the removal of all vegetation before the mountain is blasted away. This means that all forest are clear-cut and a giant chip mill is an expedient solution.
Mountian Forest Products, a Pittston subsidiary, began chipping in July. The mill employs 10 people. A company forester said they will clear-cut 100,000 acres of Dickenson County land.
Dickenson County citizens organized against the chip mill. In July, they staged a rally in Richmond for the presentation of a petition, signed by 5,000 county residents (half the county population) to Governor James Gilmore. Gilmore, who received $78,374 in funds from Pittston, did not accept the group's invitation to personally accept the petition, and did not respond to the petition's request for a statewide moratorium on chip mills until the study committee determines the cumulative impacts of the industry.
Danna Smith, Executive Director of the Dogwood Alliance, obtained her law degree from Emory University in1991. She practice civil litigation for two years and it was during this period that Danna became interested in environmental advocacy and worked pro bono on water quality issues with the Georgia Environmental Organization.
In 1994, Danna went to work for Greenpeace in Atlanta where she coordinated campaigns for the outreach office.
In November of 1996, the Dogwood Alliance was formed and Danna was hired as the Network Coordinator. In August of 1997, Danna published a report titled: "Chipping Forest and Jobs: A Report on the Economic and Environmental Impacts of Chip Mills in the Southeast" which has become the definitive resource on chip mills for activist across the country. In the year that Danna served as the Network Coordinator, the membership grew from 20 organizations to 40. She was featured on a segment CNN produced about chip mills for Earth Matters and was interviewed by NPOR for two chip mill stories that aired on Marketplace and Living Earth.
Danna became the Executive Director in March of 1998. As Executive director, she is responsible for supporting and coordinating Dogwood staff, developing and guiding programs, assisting the steering committee in financial matters and working on re-granting.
|
Index |
 CCRC's Homepage |