www.forestconnect.info
provides responses to a variety of questions that are common among private forest owners.
These answers were developed through a cooperative partnership with the USDA Forest Service, Northeastern Area
State and Private Forestry and the NY Forest Owners Association .
The people, communities, and metropolitan areas downstream from you will agree that water is the most important product your forest produces. Forests provide the best filter for water of any land use. Efforts to control water quality during forestry practices are critical to society and the opportunities that landowners have for management. The cutting of a tree does not appreciably cause erosion of soils. Rather, ground disturbance is the starting point for potential water quality problems. The potential for problems though is reduced when forest owners, foresters and logger use best management practices, or BMPs, for water quality.
BMPs are designed to control and slow water movement during forestry practices in order to minimize erosion. If soils are left exposed and unstable they can erode and cause water quality problems. Soil erosion also results in the loss of soil fertility and water holding capacity, both of which negatively affect your forest’s productivity.
BMPs are applied during several situations. At any one property, not all BMPs will be used.
Examples of situations when BMPs might apply include: skid trail stream crossings, road design and layout, log landing placement, and water control structures. Since most forest land disturbance happens during a harvest, it might help some forest owners to think about BMPs as they would occur during the activities of ownership. Namely, think about BMPs before harvest, during harvest, and after harvest.
Before a harvest, the activities that will help protect water quality depend upon getting information and then making use of it. The tools for gathering information start with a preharvest checklist and include reviewing your forest management plan, reviewing drainage patterns on a topographic map and soil survey map, and including BMP clause in the sale contract. Prior to harvest, it will be helpful to identify control points, or areas of special concern that require added attention or avoidance during the actual harvest. Examples of control points include stream crossings, abrupt changes in topography, large rock outcrops, and trails near water bodies.
Planning also has an economic benefit by allowing efficient and stable access to your woods.
Although you may be eager to initiate the harvest, there hidden costs to not pre-planning.
These include skid trail locations that don’t serve other property needs, added costs for equipment maintenance and repair, extra permitting fees, down-time during marginal weather, and added cost to restore poorly planned trails and roads following harvest.

During a harvest, the emphasis shifts to the golden rule of BMPs “controlling small amounts of slow moving water”. The easiest way to accomplish this is to avoid concentrating water or allowing it to accelerate on hills and slopes. Erosion happens because water comes in contact with exposed mineral soil. Mineral soil will be exposed when logging equipment is used on any but dry or frozen ground, so precautions are warranted to offset the effects. By careful placement of skid and haul roads, the amount of water that gets onto a road is reduced. Also, the water that gets onto a well-planned road moves slowly, is quickly drained from the road and reduces the amount of soil it transports. During the harvest, think about water control at landings, on skid trails, where trails cross streams, where trails are near streams, and when adverse weather patterns arise. Timing is also a critical issue. Pay attention to the weather forecast and prepare your site for rain events. BMPs should also be implemented if timber harvesters will be temporarily leaving the site, or after a section of the harvest zone has been completed.
If you pre-planned and monitored activity during the harvest, after the harvest your efforts will be straightforward. The focus now is on putting to rest the disturbed soil to ensure that it doesn’t erode in the future. Your sale contract should have stipulated the use of BMPs to accommodate your state’s forest harvest BMP guidelines. Now is the time to install any water control structures along trails and roads that weren’t put in as the logger progressed through the timber harvest area. Because some water control structures, such as water bars, are not functional during the actual harvest have the logger working a large harvest complete a section and put it to rest before moving to the next section of the harvest. While you have equipment on site is the best time to get the work completed. A final step is to seed areas of exposed soil.
Slash is also a very effective way to slow the over-land flow of water.
BMPs will require you to invest some time and money in activities you might not have initially considered. However, your long-term costs will be reduced, your impacts on the environment will be minimized, and you will be left with property that continues to provide personal, environmental, and financial benefits.

Recommended Links
Topic
Topographic and Soils
Maps
BMP guide books (these vary by state and may usage may be required by law)
URL
 http://www.dnr.cornell.edu/ext/bmp/contents/preharvest/pre_soilaeri al.htm
 http://www.cis.ksu.edu/~dha5446/topoweb/guide.html
 http://mac.usgs.gov/isb/pubs/booklets/symbols/reading.html

 http://www.stateforesters.org/reports/BMP/BMP_Library.html
 http://www.maine.gov/dep/blwq/docstand/timber.pdf
 http://www.dnr.state.wi.us/org/land/forestry/Usesof/bmp/bmptimber harvesting.htm
 http://www.in.gov/dnr/forestry/index.html?http://www.in.gov/dnr/fo
 restry/bmp/&2
 http://www.na.fs.fed.us/ss/04/ea_bridge.pdf Examples of BMPs used for timber harvesting
Response provided by: Peter Smallidge, NYS Extension Forester and Director, Arnot Teaching and
Research Forest. pjs23@cornell.edu