Changes in Best Management Practices Monitoring and Enforcement and Their Impact on Forestry in West Virginia

Abstract

Forestry Best Management Practices are a compilation of environmental regulations established to help mitigate and offset water sedimentation and soil erosion. This study examines severe layoffs in the West Virginia Division of Forestry and the resulting cessation in BMP compliance inspections by the State of West Virginia. This study found a significant decline in notifications to the state from loggers about impending timber harvests, a decline of 14.5 percent from the average of the previous three years prior to the curtailment in inspections due to the layoffs, and significant declines in the proper establishment of forestry BMP criteria on notified timber harvests, a decline of 13 percent statewide from previous years in terms of sites passing their overall BMP inspections. Findings on non-notified harvested sites for forestry BMP compliance proved inconclusive.