Timber harvesting operation creates flood threat

BY LISA STAYTON, ROGER SMITH and RACHEL DOVE

LAURA — Residents of Pigeon Roost Fork live in fear of the rain as entire hillsides are being clearcut of trees.

During heavy rainfall, the creek rises above its banks, forcing the rushing water to spread out, bleeding onto residents’ land and damaging homes, vehicles, cropland and fences. Residents were trapped for days during recent torrential rains as the creek covered the roadway.

Lifetime resident Lacy Howard Jr. and his neighbors say the cause of the flooding is simple: logging.

“I’d say our community will be washed off,” Howard told the Mountain Citizen. “It’s sad. It wouldn’t be so bad, but they’re not leaving nothing much. They go through trees like a weed eater through the grass.”

Thousands of acres have been clearcut on Caney Fork, and an ongoing commercial timber operation is clearing 2,000 more acres on Hobbs Fork – a stream designated by the Kentucky Division of Water as an “outstanding state water resource.” Timber companies have constructed a web-like network of roads on hillsides of Hobbs Fork to haul the trees away.

“They’re making roads as big as two-lane highways,” said Howard. “Someone said they’re making it more accessible for elk and deer, but you couldn’t whup a cat through that mess.”

According to residents, massive erosion choked Pigeon Roost Creek with sludge and debris during flooding that started in July, clogging a culvert near the mouth of Caney Fork and causing the creek to flood.

“The road department had to dig the whole creek out, probably 300-400 yards long, because the big culvert stopped up,” said Howard. “And guess what? It was logged up there above that about two years ago. There were old butt logs lying in the creek and everywhere. No one reclaimed it or anything.”

Robyn Merrill lives on Pigeon Roost beside her elderly mother and brother. She has noticed the head of the creek rising faster and higher than ever before during heavy rainfall.

“We haven’t seen anything like this since the 1980s when strip mining was going on up here,” Merrill said. “When the creek and the large drains under the road become clogged with debris, tree limbs, and silt from the hillside where a logging company is stripping the land of every tree in sight, regardless of size, we’re directly in the pathway of destruction. There’s no way to prevent our property from being flooded, and that’s very unfair to all of us. …It’s nothing but a total disregard for anyone or anything.”

Pigeon Roost resident Cora Stanley witnessed the water rising higher than ever before. It lacked 2 feet flooding her house in July. She is worried that with the number of trees being cut, the flooding will be worse. 

“If they’re taking everything off the land, it’s going to be worse,” Stanley said, adding that the creek became clogged and the water spread to her property. “If they dipped these creeks out, they wouldn’t be that way.”

Another neighbor on Pigeon Roost, Billy Maynard, says clear-cutting of trees leaves nothing to hold the water.

“This first round is 2,000 acres being clear cut,” Maynard said. “You don’t think they are going to stop with that 2,000 acres, do you? They’re going to say, ‘We got by with that first trial run; now let’s take another 2,000-4,000 more.’ What do you think folk down below us are going to have to deal with? I’m not against anyone working and making a living, but our county government needs to do something about stopping this clear-cutting.”

Flooding is not the only problem with the commercial timber operations on Pigeon Roost. The roadway above Caney Fork, a county road, has been damaged multiple times. Residents believe the county should adopt an ordinance and require bonds from the companies.

Martin County Judge/Executive Colby Kirk said the county repaired that section of roadway in May and again last week.

“We have spent time and money on that road that could be spent elsewhere,” Kirk said.

Kirk is studying samples of ordinances from other counties.

“If we do an ordinance, it would be up to the magistrates,” said Kirk. “I don’t want to stop anyone from doing their job — that’s not what we’re here to do — but I want the road maintained. If we have to keep doing this, it will keep us from working on other things.”

The judge plans to present the issue to the fiscal court.

“You know what’s sad is our county didn’t have money to open the pool for the kids but can haul loads and loads of rocks to fix the road not once but several times for loggers,” said Howard.

Ann Maynard, another Pigeon Roost homeowner who was a victim of the July flooding, needs assistance repairing a wooden bridge on her property that spans Pigeon Creek and leads to her home. Since the bridge is still usable, FEMA denied her claim even though Maynard says the structure is no longer safe due to the weakening of the supports under the bridge caused by trees and debris that washed off the hill and into the water.

“The trees got caught up under my bridge and banged one side and then the other, tearing boards loose and damaging support beams,” Ann Maynard said. “I’ve contacted the county several times to see if the trees could be removed from the creek, but so far, nothing has been done. If we keep getting hard rains and debris and more trees continue to come off the hillside where they’re logging, we are going to be in a mess. Something needs to be done quickly to correct this issue before we end up losing our homes and everything we own. When it rains hard and storms, we don’t sleep. We’re afraid of what might happen.”

Experts have long cautioned that clearcut logging affects slope stability, the rate at which water is absorbed into the ground, and the ability to hold soil in root systems. Without trees, heavy rains can wash large amounts of sediment into nearby water systems. The Kentucky Forest Conservation Act requires timber harvesting operators to use appropriate best management practices, including removing tree tops from stream channels, revegetation of eroded or high erodible areas and water control structures.

The Mountain Citizen spoke Friday with John Mura, executive director with the Office of Communication for the Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet in Frankfort, to share the concerns of the residents of Pigeon Roost.

“I’m sure this matter will be looked at carefully by our Division of Forestry folks,” said Mura.

On Monday, Mura sent an email saying an inspector with the Forestry Department would visit the site before the day was out. Mura said he would inform the newspaper of their findings after the report was submitted. He also advised that he would forward information about the stream at Hobbs Fork to appropriate officials at the Division of Water.

Pocahontas Land LLC owns the land on Hobbs Fork, but vice president Mike Blackburn said his company does not own the standing timber.

“The trees are the property of Advantage Timberland Inc., and any contracts with loggers to cut timber would be between their two companies,” Blackburn said. “I want to make it clear that Pocahontas does not own the timber and we have no part of what is going on there at Pigeon Roost.”

Attempts to reach Mike Jones with Advantage Timberland were unsuccessful.

While the company that logged Caney Fork is no longer active in that area, the company currently working on Hobbs Fork is Coalfield Lumber of Inez.

Martin County Deputy Judge Eric Phelps told the Mountain Citizen that he and Judge Kirk met with Coalfield Lumber owner Brian Jude last week.

“He told me they were trying to work on it some,” Phelps said. “He said they needed ditch lines pulled to keep the water off so the road won’t stay so wet all the time.”

Phelps said he and Kirk agreed that the county would pull the ditches, and Jude agreed to maintain the road.