Audubon Views and Actions on Chip Mills
Missouri Links National Audubon Society Links Other Chip Mill LinksMissouri LinksNational and International Links Coverage of Chip Mill and Forestry Issues by News MediaMissouri News Media StoriesNews Media Stories in Other States Other Forestry Links Forestry Issues Environmental Organization Sites Forestry and Wood Products SitesResponding to the concerns of citizens across Missouri Governor Mel Carnahan issued an Executive Order (98-16) on Chip Mills on September 18, 1998. The order establishes an Advisory Committee on Chip Mills and promulgates interim guidelines for chip mills.
The Committee is to make interim recommendations to the Governor by January 1, 1999 and issue a final report by December 1, 1999. The Committee will be composed of at least 14 members: the directors (or the directors' designees) from the Departments of Natural Resources, Conservation, Economic Development, and Agriculture, two state representatives and two state senators, two forest products industry representatives,two representatives of citizen environmental conservation groups, a forest landowner, a representative of an organization representing private property owners, and any other members which the Governor may, from time to time, appoint.
Until the committee makes its recommendations to the Governor all state agencies ". . . shall refrain from providing new economic incentives to develop or expand chip mills in the State of Missouri."
Until the Commitee completes its study the order also directs DNR to:
To read the full text of the order go to: Executive Order (98-16) on Chip Mills
Return to topYou may already know, high-capacity chip mills have begun their proliferation in Southeast Missouri. For those of you who commented on the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) General Permit and attended the public meeting, thank you. Public response has made a real difference.
As a direct result of this participation, Willamette Industries must begin the application process anew for their Mill Spring facility. This time they must address water quality issues on a site specific level. In order to make this permit effective in minimizing the potential effects of the mill, certain issues must be addressed during the public comment period (ending August 24). Please include the following in a letter to DNR:
Generally:
Storm water runoff at the site poses these potential hazards to the water quality of the Black River, therefore:
Phil Schroder
MO Department of Natural Resources
Water Pollution Control Program
PO Box 176
Jefferson City MO 65102-0176
Your letter could be the one to leverage the support we need to solidify federal action toward a moratorium and region-wide chip mill impact study!
Delegates from seven federal agencies met recently and agreed that escalating forest demands and the spread of chip mills in the Southeast need explanation and evaluation!
Agencies planners will now make recommendations for the scoping and fact-finding process leading to baseline forest resource data. (Participants are US Environmental Protection Agency, US Forest Service, US Army Corps of Engineers, US Fish and Wildlife Service, US Geological Survey, Natural Resource Conservation Service, Tennessee Valley Authority, and NOAA.)
Urge the Vice President to support these federal agencies in producing a region-wide forest / chip mill impact study -- and a moratorium on any new chip mill and chip mill support facility permits until the study is complete. (Key "talking" points below)
The Honorable Vice President Al Gore
The White House
Washington, DC 20500
Dogwood Alliance Regional Campaign
Cielo Sand
PO Box 4826
Chattanooga, TN 37405
Key "talking" points:
Dear Mr. Vice President,
For more information, please call Cielo Sand at 423/332-0748
or email: mailto:cielosand@mindspring.com
or snail mail:
Cielo Sand
The Dogwood Alliance
PO Box 4826,
Chattanooga, TN 37405
Thank you for your good work and high spirits!
- For the Earth
++++++++++++++++++++THE DOGWOOD ALLIANCE
PO Box 1598
Brevard NC 28712
On May 22, 1998, the above individuals took part in a field trip to look at two very different examples of timber management in the Ozarks. Filling a school bus, the group left Salem and headed south to cross the Current River at Cedar Grove.
The first stop was on Timberhill Road (just southeast of Highway B) in Texas County. This track of about 1200 to 1400 acres formerly belonged to J. M. Huber, but was purchased in the last two years and the new owner has carried out very heavy logging -- including clearcutting on about 700 acres. There was some dispute over just where these trees had gone -- sawmill, chip mill or both. Initially, they were trucked to a sawmill (s) near Mountain View/Birch Tree area. Afterwards, some of the material may have headed south to a high capacity chip mill in Arkansas. No one disputed that this was NOT an example of good forest management, but there was pointed disagreement as to whether this cutting was the result of the chip mill industry. Some (Powell & MFPA & MoDOC) argued that chip mills would not result in this kind of abuse, but others (esp. Pioneer Forest) argued that this is exactly what we can expect as the chip mill industry gets established in or near Missouri.
The second stop was to look at an area of Pioneer Forest, also in Texas County, just off Highway B. The site we visited has been logged three times since the 1950s on an uneven selection cut method where the best growing trees of all sizes are left. Although the last cut was only about two years ago, this area still had the feel and look of a forest and to the untrained eye might even appear natural. The contrast with the earlier site was compelling.
We stopped for lunch at Cedar Grove, and then returned to the bank in Salem for a brief slide show. On the bus, at the stops, over lunch and back in Salem, the discussion was vigorous. Everyone seemed to agree that getting such a diverse group together to discuss this controversial issue was a good idea.
-- by Roger Pryor - May 27, 1998Note: An article on this forestry tour was also published in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch:
April 29, 1998
Mr. Ben Clary
Superintendent
Ozark National Scenic Riverways
P. O. Box 490
Van Buren, MO 63965
Recently, two members of our staff visited several sites of intense logging, even clear-cutting in the watershed of the Current and Jacks Fork rivers. Over the April 17-19 weekend we inspected four areas of timber holdings formerly listed as belonging to J. M. Huber Corporation.
We had been informed by Mr. Clint Trammel, manager of Pioneer Forest, and several local residents that these tracts were experiencing severe cutting in the last year or two. What we found was sickening to behold: whole ridge tops scalped of timber and valleys chewed up by log skidding and roads. This was not clear cutting as practiced by the Missouri Department of Conservation or the shelterwood cutting found on lands in the Mark Twain National Forests or private land owners like John Powell of Rolla. This is wholesale destruction . . . resource mining. The trees are being shipped by truck and rail to a sawmill at Birch Tree and on to a chip mill at Menifee, Arkansas (Canal Wood Fiber).
We understand that the new Willamette chip mill at Mill Spring (Wayne County) has acquired some 26,000 acres of Huber land scattered across five counties, some of which is also in the watershed of the ONSR. But, the land we inspected was further west in Shannon and Texas counties. Specifically, the tracts we inspected are:Northeast Texas County, along Highway B and Timberhill (sic) Road in all or parts of Sections 22, 23 and 27, T. 31 N., R. 7 W. About 1,400 acres of Huber land with probably 1,000 acres already logged, more than half of which has been clear-cut. This is in the watershed of Big Creek, about 6 miles above its confluence with the upper Current.
NOTE: During a lunch stop at the mouth of Big Creek, we observed both dune buggy and ATV abuse of the creek and river contrary to State law and NPS regulations.Texas County, southeast of Raymondville, including parts of Sections 13 and 22-27, T. 30 N., R. 8 W., and Sections 16-18, T. 30 N., R. 7 W. This includes over 5,000 acres of Huber land and is further up in the Big Creek watershed.
Shannon County, southeast of Summersville, Sections 1, 2, and 9-12, T. 28 N., R. 6 W. This is 2,880 acres of Huber land in the watershed of Leatherwood Creek, that wonderful canyon tributary to the Jacks Fork.
Northeast Shannon County, along and north of Highway A between Bunker and Highway 19, including all or parts of Sections 1-5, 8-12 and 15-17, T. 31 N., R. 4 W. Over 6,300 acres of Huber land. We did not cover much of this site due to its size, but the same severe cutting pattern was in evidence. This, of course, is in the watershed of Sinking Creek, 8 to 10 miles above the Current at Round Spring.
[Other key tracts of Huber land not inspected, include: over 2,000 acres in Texas County upstream from Montauk State Park, at the juncture of Townships 31 and 32 and Ranges 7 and 8; and about 1,000 acres in Shannon County upstream from Alley Spring in Township 29, Ranges 4 and 5.]
This extreme logging clearly poses a threat to the water quality of the ONSR and the mission of the National Park Service here in Missouri. I call this to your attention so that appropriate action may commence to protect these outstanding rivers and their watersheds. I know that NPS and the Riverways Watershed are concerned with the issue of chip mills as evidenced by your recent panel discussion in Van Buren. There, the focus was on the new mills at Mill Spring and Scott City, but Missouri is already under the axe and saw from operating mills south in Arkansas.
We look forward to your earliest response to this serious threat. Thank you.
Sincerely,
R. Roger Pryor
Senior Policy Director
MISSOURI COALITION FOR THE ENVIRONMENT
cc:
Governor Mel Carnahan
DNR Director Steve Mahfood
MDC Director Jerry Conley
Clint Trammel, Pioneer Forest
John Powell, Powell Limber
