Objective 3. Protection and Maintenance of Water Resources. To protect water quality in rivers, streams, lakes, and other water bodies.

Performance Measure 3.1. Program Participants shall meet or exceed all applicable federal, provincial, state and local water quality laws, and meet or exceed best management practices developed under Canadian or U.S. Environmental Protection Agency–approved water quality programs.

Indicators:

1. Program to implement state or provincial best management practices during all phases of management activities.

Program elements should include:

  • Commitment to periodic training on water quality BMPs, rules and regulations and spill prevention and mop up techniques.
  • Review harvest sites for water related issues such as wet soils, steep terrain, and riparian zones. These areas are reviewed with the logging contractor before operations begin, during operations and at their end (close out).
  • Effective water bars are installed and maintained during the operation if needed and at close out.
  • All of these requirements are documented.
  • The same type of commitment would be written for road construction and road maintenance activities.
  • Cover how you are going to address wet weather events (and wet areas as well). You will need to have a consistent approach on under what circumstances you either shut down or move the operation. Some participants have areas already specified for wet weather events if a move is needed. Auditors don’t expect you to go out of business but they don’t expect sites to be degraded either. Some rutting is tolerated but there are limits.
  • Commit to participate in the States on-going BMP monitoring program and obtain the results on your property (if your sites are selected) and review the State’s periodic reports.

2. Contract provisions that specify conformance to best management practices.

  • Put a paragraph in your contracts that specify that the contractor must follow water quality BMPs and regulations including spill prevention measures.
  • It is appropriate to require the contractors to have materials on hand to contain and mop up spills.

3. Plans that address wet-weather events (e.g. forest inventory systems, wet-weather tracts, definitions of acceptable operating conditions).

See Indicator 1. The “Program” should address this Indicator.

4. Monitoring of overall best management practices implementation.

  • Monitoring should start as soon as operations take place with remedial action done if operations aren’t meeting SFI commitments.
  • A close-out procedure is necessary to make sure the sites are secure before operators leave the area.
  • Again, these activities must be documented.
  • A Harvesting Prescription sheet would have a section documenting compliance.

Performance Measure 3.2. Program Participants shall have or develop, implement and document riparian protection measures based on soil type, terrain, vegetation, ecological

function, harvesting system and other applicable factors.

Indicators:

1. Program addressing management and protection of rivers, streams, lakes, and other water bodies and riparian zones.

  • Program should commit to training on BMPs, rules and regulations pertaining to wetlands, water bodies and riparian zones.
  • If you are going to use the riparian zones to “store” habitat elements and in general operate to higher than regulatory standards mention your plans to do so.
  • In LURC we can operate around the P-SL2 zones by just leaving shade and operate above the 300 acre drainage point with few restrictions.
  • In organized towns, harvesting along the first order streams only calls for shade (unless a town has beefed up its state mandated shoreland zoning ordinance).
  • It is recommended that you commit to a higher standards than mentioned in the above two bullets which is accomplished by following BMPs.

2. Mapping of rivers, streams, lakes, and other water bodies as specified in state or provincial best management practices and, where appropriate, identification on the ground.

  • In general, LURC and the organized towns have sufficient detail on wetlands and water bodies for this Indicator but the participant should commit to ground truth areas scheduled for operations to make sure all appropriate areas are properly located and identified.
  • Riparian zones and similar sensitive areas should be flagged and operational instructions provided to operators before activities start. Instructions from staff should be consistent.

3. Implementation of plans to manage or protect rivers, streams, lakes, and other water bodies.

  • You should discuss how you will manage these areas such as operate to the law in general, ask for permits in special cases (blow down or over mature wood), have a no entry policy, or use them for building up habitat elements or late successional trees.

4. Identification and protection of non-forested wetlands, including bogs, fens and marshes, and vernal pools of ecological significance.

  • Restricting operations to either dry periods or the winter, use of single grip harvesters, returning slash to skid trails are options to consider. For vernal pools indicate you will follow BMPs.
  • Bogs and marshes are addressed under Indicator 3. Operations wouldn’t take place in a fen.

5. Where regulations or best management practices do not currently exist to protect riparian areas, use of experts to identify appropriate protection measures.

  • Covered under Indicator 4 above for non-forested wet lands. Maine regulations and BMPs are rather thorough.