After hearing of damage caused by commercial logging near Lone Star, Douglas County commissioners Monday said they will consider creating logging regulations, so long as they don't significantly limit property rights.
Commissioners said there seemed to be legitimate concern that logging on 17 acres about 1 mile west of Lone Star on County Route 1 would exacerbate flooding problems on adjacent Washington Creek.
Neighbor Karl Birns brought pictures of the site to the morning meeting and told commissioners the work had destabilized the creek banks. He said large amounts of "slash," or leftover logging debris, eventually would wash into the creek, making it more apt to flood.
"If the slash clogs up Washington Creek, my house will be under water the next time it floods," Birns said.
Commissioners said they want planning staff to look at what type of permit could be created to deal with the effects logging might have on streams and neighboring properties. They said they aren't interested in banning commercial logging outright, though.
"It's not the logging of the trees that concerns me so much," Commissioner Bob Johnson said. "These trees have economic value and they are a renewable resource, so we shouldn't get too caught up in stopping it.
"But I do want to look at preventing flooding issues and maintaining some integrity of the land after the loggers leave," he said. "It is kind of the same issue as strip mining."
Birns had asked commissioners to consider creating a 50-foot, no-logging area along creek beds or prohibiting loggers from taking more than a certain percentage of old-growth timber on a property. Birns said many of the trees cut near Lone Star were 150 years old, a "unique environmental resource" to the community.
The county now has no logging regulations, but after learning of the logging, officials from the county and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers inspected the site last week. Officials made loggers remove two temporary crossings built across the creek without proper permits.
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