By Anne McLean
Journal Correspondent

A three-year old dispute between loggers in South Louisiana's cypress forests and Federal regulators controlling coastal wetlands areas has reached the U.S. Congress in a bill introduced last month by Louisiana Senator David Vitter of Metairie.

The bill, an amendment to the Water Resources Development Act, attempts to force a truce between competing interests of environmentalists and wetland loggers who were halted from cutting logs in the cypress forests west of Lake Maurepas in Livingston Parish, would allow loggers to operate on those wetlands where trees can regenerate. Environmentalists object, saying it would be harmful to the coastal restoration, for which $1.9 billion would be appropriated in the main hill.

In a news statement from American Forest & Paper Association (AF&PA) Vitter is quoted as saying he would not allow the amendment to block the coastal funding, but he believes a compromise can be reached.

Source of the controversial amendment is a 3,000 acre logging operation that occurred three years ago. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers stopped the activity, citing the 1899 Rivers and Harbors Act, which prohibits such activities in navigable waterways controlled by the United States. The Louisiana Forestry Association objected to the Corps' action, saying that such logging comes under the 1972 Clean Water Act, which allows for logging in such areas, except in regions where forests could not be regenerated.

Therein lines the conflict.

Foresters and regulators find themselves debating the two federal water-related laws and the long-term function and value of the cypress forests in southern Louisiana. In 2003 the New Orleans District of the United States Army Corps of Engineers issued two Cease and Desist orders to two private landowners wishing to cut their cypress forests in the Lake Maurepas region of Livingston Parish.

The Corps stated that landowners required Section 10 permits, as outlined in the 1899 Rivers and Harbors Act, in order to proceed. Logging interest groups maintain that permits are unnecessary because Section 404 of the 1972 Clean Water Act allows on-going cutting of wetland forests without permits.

Both sides cited valid federal laws to support their respectful positions. The New Orleans District Corps stated that harvesting these cypress forests violated the Rivers and Harbors Act (RHA) of 1899, a federal act established to ensure that commercial waterways throughout the United States remain unobstructed for navigation. It states that both temporary and permanent obstructions to navigation on commercial waterways up to the mean and ordinary high water mark require a permit from the Corps.

In a written statement to the Piney Woods Journal, John Bruza, Chief of the Surveillance and Enforcement Section, Regulatory Branch of the New Orleans District USACE, explains why the timber operations were halted. The Cease and Desist orders, "were issued for work associated with the construction of mat roads and the deposition/redistribution of fill material within cypress swamps through which waters of the Amite River and/or the Petite Amite River flow," Bruza reports. Furthermore, "both timber operators were aware of the need to obtain permits prior in engaging in these unauthorized activities," states Bruza.

A.C. "Buck" Vandersteen, Executive Director of LFA, believes that one of the disputed forests has nothing to do with the issue of navigation. "It is a stretch of the imagination to see how logging hundreds of feet to a quarter mile away from a navigable waterbody can impede navigation," Vandersteen states. He is referring to one logging operation, which is said to have preserved a 2,000-acre buffer zone of cypress forest adjacent to the Lake Maurepas shore.

Beyond the issue of the operations taking place within or impacting navigable waterways, the LFA argues that Section 404 of the Clean Water Act defends timber-harvesting operations. Enforced by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Section 404 exempts foresters, who are engaged in ongoing silviculture activities (the science, art and practice of managing forests for human objectives) in wetland areas from necessitating permits.

In the January 2004 issue of the LFA News, the LFA found that, "the Corps' actions requiring Section 10 permits are confusing and contrary to the Section 404 exemption." Vandersteen also speculates that the Lake Maurepas incidents could indicate the Corps's far-reaching intentions: "the Corps' is overstepping it boundaries. If it is not stopped what we will see is the Corps' power increase and other areas, such as agriculture may be targeted."

Vandersteen has also stated in presentations at several forest landowner and logger conferences in the State that logging in other areas near navigable waterways could be affected.

Bruza, however, counters that no conflict exists between these two laws. He says that, "a Department of the Army permit under Section 404 of the Clean Water Act is required prior to the deposition or redistribution of dredged or fill material into all waters of the United States, unless the activity is specifically identified as exempt. A Department of the Army permit under Section 10 of the Rivers and Harbors Act is required prior to any work in navigable waters; there are no exemptions." LFA remains adamant that the USACE both misinterpreted the RHA and allowed RHA to override the authority of Section 404.

Beyond policies and regulations this conflict perhaps encompasses a greater concern: the value and sustainability of the cypress. Forests are a valuable natural resource in Louisiana. The economic value and benefits derived from cypress timber sales are only one type of value gained from the forests. The value and function of these coastal wetland areas to prevent coastal erosion and to serve as reservoirs and filter pollutants from the water are yet other values of these wetlands. Such function and far-reaching value cannot be cannot be overlooked as Louisiana struggles to save its rapidly dwindling coastline. According to the United States Geological Survey (USGS), Louisiana's coastal wetlands contain over 40 percent of the U.S. tidal marshes.

Although there are many causes of wetland loss, it is the manmade structures erected in the wetlands that are the notable culprits. Dams, levees, navigation projects and channels constructed along the mainstream and major tributaries of the Mississippi River since 1928 have led to loss of wetlands and wetland species, of which the cypress is most prominent. The USGS comments that these manmade hydrological changes, "began following the watershed flood of 1927, [and] were completed in 1963, coinciding with the first observations of major coastal land loss in Louisiana. They have resulted in a 67 percent decrease in sediment delivered to the Louisiana coast, a necessary process to keep marshlands replenished." The impact of such hydrological changes has also had a grave effect on cypress.

The sensitivity of the cypress makes it thrive and reproduce only under certain environmental conditions. Since 1928 flood control construction projects have forced cypress forests to endure dramatic habitat changes and have negatively impacted the trees. Carlton DuFrechou, Executive Director, Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation, explains some of the hydrological transformations. "Coastal subsidence combined with a lack of incoming sediment deposits has caused elevated water levels in wetlands. The cypress grow in shallow water and need a dry period without water covering their trunks," he continues, "dams and levees further complicate the matter by keeping wetlands flooded year-round and permitting saltwater to intrude into these fresh water habitats. The result is inhibited regeneration and likely death of the existing forests."

This brings the discussion back to harvesting and sustainability. LFA believes that landowners are watching potential profits and value of a crop evaporate because they are having difficulty conducting harvesting operations, such as the two instances in Livingston Parish. "Regulations such as the RHA actually harm forestry resources," states Vandersteen. "Trees need to be harvested when they are in their prime and before the hydrological changes to which the forests are subjected take their toll on the trees. People need to have access to the economic value of the timber, which in turn helps the state's economy." Still Vandersteen, like all others involved in this issue, is ultimately concerned about sustainability, "Louisiana foresters are dedicated to sustainability, especially through use of Best Management Practices. They would be foolish to behave otherwise, since the forests are our livelihood." DuFrechou also notes this goal. "I'm an eternal optimist and believe that sustainability is possible," he says. "Groups and regulators are working hard on this issue and as long as everyone continues their willingness to work together progress will continue."

Members of the Louisiana Congressional delegation say they believe the dual objectives of sustainability and coastal restoration are not inconsistent with logging operations. Sen. Vitter is quoted "This (interpretation of regulations) is a huge overreach by the Corps. You're talking about activity that is miles away from navigable waters."

Rep. Richard Baker of Baton Rouge, in whose district the logging occurred, has tried to introduce legislation that would limit the Corps' activity regulating logging in wetlands. "This is regulation gone amok," he said. It doesn't make sense. There ought to be places were timber can be farmed."

Back