Dealing with water on main skid roads…

[Brad Johnson]

The pine lot we are in at the moment has a steep hill that all the main skid roads come down from the upper part of the lot to the landing area. We have gotten in the habit of putting small water bars in and roughing up the smooth troughs were the logs have traveled before each rain fall. This does make for a little extra work, but it seems to make a big difference. In addition, we are trying to stay off the ground until it dries a bit, spending the we days felling and bunching with both teams. Bob and I got to thinking that it would great if those of us working in the woods with animals had our own set of “BMP’s” or the like, guidelines on paper that we try to stick to to maintain the ecological integrity of the woods we work in. Surely, we are doing much of this stuff anyways as part of sound logging practices, but I would like to see a specific set of recommendations for loggers working in this area that would supplement what already exists with the state BMP’s for logging work. I was hoping that others might toss out ideas and I would begin to get a list together. This think should be a brainstorming effort, rather than a “You must do this or else” type list. Perhaps sometime down the line we could publish a list of recommendations for use in the woods by like-minded practitioners. Just thought it might be interesting to see what ideas are generated.
-Brad

[Baystatetom]

Just don’t forget the 3 rules to logging roads, get the water off the road, get the water off the road, and most importantly, get the water off the road!
~Tom

[Carl Russell]

Great idea Brad. The standards for NE Draftwood will certainly be a good place for a list like that.

I personally firmly believe that road work prior to the job is by far the best policy. Put in structures that can withstand the activity, then during the job it is just a maintenance issue.

As far as road and water quality, the VT Dep of Forests, Parks, and Recreation has published a handy little booklet covering Acceptable Management Practices on Logging Jobs in VT. They are easy to get ahold of, and they are very detailed with slope degrees, and structure requirements, etc.
Here is a link to a PDF… http://www.vtfpr.org/watershed/documents/Amp2006.pdf

As far as maintaining ecological integrity, while erosion control is part of it, it ultimately has much more to do with silviculture, felling and stem removal, and habitat disturbance. All really good things to address in relation to draft animal powered forestry.

Hopefully we can expand this during our presentations at DAPFD.

Carl

[irish]

the other thing is to stop it getting on the road and is often over looked over here
and silt traps are also good thing to install

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