ACTION ALERTS

Protect Tennessee's Water Quality and Supplies From Irresponsible Logging Practices!

Urge the State To Strengthen Chip Mill Storm Water Permits

TDEC (Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation) is about to reissue its industrial storm water permits, including chip mill facilities that encourage the large-scale clearcutting spreading across Tennessee and the Southeast. Voice your concern at a public hearings and/or a letter to the state!! (Sample Letter and Public Hearing dates and locations are listed below.)

Forestry is a WATER issue! We deserve clean water to drink, fish, swim and for outdoor recreation. Our forested watersheds are among North America's most biologically diverse regions and deserve protection. But, current laws fail to protect Tennessee's water quality and supplies from the effect of the rapid sweep of industrial scale logging to supply the pulp and paper and chipboard industries. Clearcutting -- the harvest method used by chip mills -- is legal! Some cuts are thousands of acres in size. A pre-harvest notification is not required, leaving the state unaware of thousands of remote logging operations across the state annually. In addition, the state only monitors 8 percent of the total number of logging operations statewide each year to ensure that the voluntary Best Management Practices are implemented to protect streams and wetlands. Who is keeping a protective eye on Tennessee's valuable forested watesheds?

Voice Your Concerns at a Public Hearing or Letter to TDEC


Join with families, concerned communities and businesses in Tennessee as we urge TDEC to provide the bold leadership necessary to prevent pollution from unchecked clearcutting. TDEC can include these reasonable safeguards that will begin to address the effects of large-scale clearcutting on Tennessee streams and wetlands!

TDEC can include these reasonable safeguards in chip mill storm water permits