Product Stewardship in Logging Industry Could Reduce Landslides
Storms in the state of Washington last year produced mudslides that could have been prevented by proper product stewardship in the logging industry, according to a Seattle Times story for Envirolink. Logging these areas removes trees that help intercept the rain and bind the soil. Decades of studies, which have been used to help shape state forest-practice rules, show logging such slopes can increase the number and size of slides.
Last year, a violent storm in December sent hillsides sliding into Little Mill Creek, which provides water for 3,000 residents of the Boisfort Valley water treatment plant area. It took three months for the residents to be able to drink their tap water again.
Weyerhaeuser expanded logging around Little Mill Creek in the late 1990s as the second-growth forests, originally cut some 50 years before, reached maturity.
David Montgomery, a University of Washington geomorphology professor who reviewed The Seattle Times’ findings, believes Weyerhaeuser underestimated the risks of clear-cutting.
Last December’s landslides and floods buried the Boistfort Valley water intake in several feet of mud. The treatment plant was shut down. The plant is now scrambling to complete about $750,000 worth of repairs by the summer’s end. Government grants will pay some of the bill, but valley residents likely will see rate increases.
Water-company officials fear the next round of winter storms will stir up all the mud and soil deposited along the banks of Little Mill Creek during the flood, making it much more difficult to deliver clean water to their customers.
