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P.O. Box 2642 | Darien, GA 31305 | Tel 912-437-8164 | FAX 912-437-8765 | |
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River group raises concerns about cutting, spillsBy S. Heather Duncan, Telegraph Staff WriterMacon Telegraph February 13, 2004 The Altamaha Riverkeeper group has recently begun investigating how timber companies' clear-cutting of wetlands affects water quality. Riverkeeper and clean-water advocate James Holland contacted regulators in December and January about logging sites in Wilkinson and Montgomery counties, where he believes timber companies failed to protect waterways from erosion and oil spills. In one case, the riverkeeper organization has consulted experts to help determine whether timber company Thompson Hardwoods violated water quality laws. Holland has criticized the business's logging practices and protested last year's appointment of Phyllis Johnson, a minority owner of the company, to the Board of Natural Resources. The board, appointed by the governor, decides the state's timber policy as it oversees the Georgia Forestry Commission. "This is not a company that cares. It's obvious," said Holland. He was contacted by Wilkinson landowners Greg Milks and Mike Evans, who were dissatisfied with logging methods being used by Thompson Hardwoods on their property bordering the Oconee River. As he walked the Wilkinson tract, pausing to poke a stick in an oily pool amid cypress stumps, Holland exclaimed, "Look at it! Cut completely out!" He points to a few uprooted, half-skinned white gum trees. "They stand out like ghosts," he said. Thompson Hardwoods is one of Georgia's largest hardwood companies, operating mostly within a 125-mile radius of Hazelhurst. They are one of 90 logging companies or chip mills in the state, according to a forest business directory created by the Georgia Forestry Commission. The directory lists more than 130 companies in Middle Georgia involved in the forest industry, including wood-product companies like cabinet makers and paper mills. Thompson Hardwoods president Steve Johnson say the Wilkinson site is in excellent condition and the Georgia Forestry Commission found only a few small problems. Johnson said Holland has refused offers to discuss his concerns with the company. Steve Johnson, who is Phyllis Johnson's husband, said his wife is uninvolved in the company's daily operations. Thompson Hardwoods' seven foresters, all certified by the state's Master Timber Harvester program, mark stream buffers and design a logging plan before cutting starts, Johnson said. Holland has been working with the Southern Environmental Law Center and Turner Environmental Law Clinic to determine whether activities at the logging site violated water protection laws. The Riverkeeper group files lawsuits against perceived violators. Holland and an expert hired by the law center say the low-lying areas are actually interlocking seasonal streams that connect with the river during floods. Considering the waterways isolated, the company clear-cut them. "This site is a major concern to all of us," said Chris DeScherer, a Southern Environmental Law Center attorney. "If this is at all indicative of the way this company and others are harvesting, then it's a huge problem." Thompson Hardwoods, which employs 172 people in Hazelhurst, has twice invited the forestry commission to inspect the tract. In November, the site received a perfect score, and it remains above average, said Frank Green, water quality coordinator for the commission. However, in December Holland found a 20-gallon hydraulic fluid spill there that had not been cleaned up or reported to the state Environmental Protection Division, as the law requires. Holland reported it, and logging subcontractor Ray Thompson Trucking Company was required to clean up using oil-absorbent pads. The process took two weeks, according to EPD records, which showed loggers had spread the fluid throughout a wetland area by continuing to work in the oil. "More than one time, I've seen oil around equipment, and our people know they're supposed to tell the logger to tend to that," said Steve Burton, Thompson Hardwoods procurement manager. "It's a common problem." Burton said he has since talked to the company's logging contractors about spills and instructed his foresters to do the same. "I'm not real proud that (James Holland) went out there and found an oil spill we hadn't cleaned up," he said. Jeffery Williams, an EPD field investigator, said the company has cooperated, and the site is now clean. The state does not plan to fine Thompson Hardwoods or the logger, said Jeff Darley, program manager for EPD's Augusta office. Holland also sent a letter to the forestry commission about a logging site on Hack Branch Road in Montgomery County, listing what he called unnecessary stream crossings, tree tops in streams, and oil spills. The tract was logged this fall by Chester Logging under the supervision of Beasley Timber Management, a family company from Jeff Davis County. Holland wrote that Beasley had violated several clean water laws and "the lack of preventive maintenance on the timber-harvesting equipment to avoid oil spills at this site was the worst I have ever observed." Holland called the tract "the worst small site ever observed by this organization." "Mr. Holland is exaggerating tremendously," said Darrell Beasley, vice president of Beasley Timber Products. "He sees what looks to be a few drops of oil and thinks there's a major catastrophe." Beasley said small oil spills happen, but the company tries to clean them up before completing logging. All the company's foresters and loggers are Master Timber Harvesters, he said. The Georgia Forestry Commission twice inspected the site, owned by Ware McCallum of South Carolina, in response to complaints. Although Green of the forestry commission said stream buffers were too thin, the company left enough trees to shade the water, and overall the site scored a 91 out of 100. An EPA inspection on Friday after rain showed no runoff problems, he said. EPA officials did not return phone calls Friday. McCallum could not be reached. McCallum's sister Betty Bivins lives next door to the land, part of a tract the siblings inherited from their father. She said despite poverty, her father never clear-cut. Bivins, who contacted Holland about the site, said Beasley's loggers bulldozed a spring, leaving 100 frogs trying to crowd into a little puddle. Beasley disputes this and says the situation is more of a family feud than an environmental issue. "Neighbors use environmental regulations as leverage to get somebody not to cut a tract of timber," he said. "Landowners should be able to harvest their timber tract so long as the water quality is not threatened without the harassment that has taken place on this tract," he wrote in an e-mail to the Telegraph. Since 2000, the forestry commission has received eight complaints about Thompson Hardwood and four about Beasley, Green said. All are resolved, except for one Thompson Hardwood stream crossing that has not been fixed since 2001. (The company and the landowner disagree on who is responsible.) Green said the number of complaints is not unusual for a hardwood company, because hardwoods usually grow in wetlands. |
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