Good forestry practices during timber harvests are essential to protecting streams and reducing erosion. The Virginia SHARP Logger Program works with logging professionals to provide education regarding sustainable harvesting methods, mitigating problems that directly affect water quality during timber harvests.

Housed within Virginia Cooperative Extension and the College of Natural Resources and Environment, the SHARP Logger Program trains logging businesses in science-based practices that protect water while keeping working forests economically viable.

“One of the big things we focus on is best management practices for protecting water quality on timber harvests,” said Scott Barrett, an associate professor in the Department of Forest Resources and Environmental Conservation.

Streamside Management Zones and riparian buffers are central to SHARP Logger training. Loggers learn how to identify protected stream areas, maintain vegetated buffers, and plan harvests so that roads, skid trails, and log landings do not compromise water quality.

“Buffers along streams are a big part of it,” Barrett said. “It also has to do with road construction and where they put their roads and closing them out so they can reduce erosion and sedimentation.”

Best management practices taught through the program include road layout, water diversion structures on skid trails, seeding bare soil, and properly stabilizing harvest sites once operations are complete.

Surveys of SHARP Logger participants show that training results in real changes on the ground.

Barrett said one of the biggest changes reported by participants is improving implementation of best management practices to protect water quality.

These improvements compliment riparian buffer programs. Buffers established through landowner initiatives are protected and respected during harvests, while good logging practices ensure that water quality benefits are maintained even during active forest management.

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