Logging Best Management Practices

Logging began last week along a section of Pipe Creek between Schroder Road and Warren Hill.  Pipe Creek is not a direct tributary of Captina Creek but is covered under Captina Creek's watershed action plan as an Ohio River direct drainage.  Most of the creek's drainage area is heavily forested and logging practices are somewhat common along its length.  Water quality in Pipe Creek has been gradually improving over the past two decades due to the natural abatement of acid mine drainage from abandoned subsurface coal mines.  Though some view logging as a destructive practice, if done properly and responsibly it can be a great asset to the long-term health and maintenance of large forest tracts.  An example of good forest management practice is shown below.  Logging bridges keep equipment out of streams limiting excessive sedimentation and and overall environmental impact.

A portable folding bridge keeps equipment out of the streambed.

 

Another view of the bridge.