25' buffer around ponds- partial correction + retraction!

[BOBNDWOODS]

In article <1998081221380000.RAA04992 at ladder03.news.aol.com>, susan112 at aol.com
(Susan112) writes:

>A buffer to keep shade on a pond makes sense to me, but the woody debris thing
>doesn't...I've had Boy Scouts go out onto state land on our constructed
>wildlife water holes, old clay mine pits, and other fishless ponds and place
>woody debris along the shallow edges of the ponds for amphibian egg laying
habitat.  
>This was by suggestion of the herpetologist who works for our Natural History
>section and who has written up statewide guidelines for this type of
>thing....Missouri, not Massachusetts mind you :)
>
>He was looking for larger and flatter material than tops, but I would think
>tops would do in a pinch.  I can't understand why they would get their hose in
>such a knot over it Joe, even if it was a whole top from the current harvest.

I think the concern about tops in ponds and streams is a matter of oxygen
depletion caused by excessive woody debris decaying in the water.  With out
some kind of supervision this can be a serious problem on some logging jobs. 
Methinks Joe has a point that the letter of the law is often persued to
extremes.


Bob Miller
Alabama Registered Forester

~~~> The forest may be quiet, but that doesn't mean all the snakes have left.