Logger took about 4 acres of 80 year old hardwoods without permission.

thompsontimber · November 03, 2009, 11:22:56 PM

ncguy, glad to hear you have contacted a forester and decided on a course of action. Wish you the best with it and the law is certainly on your side. Just to clarify for James P, no, permits are not required for harvesting timber in NC, so there wouldn't be a permit issue. Sure hope we can keep those planning and zoning politicians under control! They are sure doing their best to take control here as well. Before long we will have to get approval from a board and be issued a permit for each trip to the restroom.

ncguy444 · November 03, 2009, 11:56:50 PM

thompsontimber, I actually bought the land from the forester I got the info from. Him and I are friends but I hate bothering people all the time because time is money for them. I posted here first for information this weekend before I contacted him on monday and the folks on this forum have been great. Between the people here and my friend the forester I feel relatively enlightened about the situation. I hate to say it and am sure you might agree but the days of light regulation and low taxes especially in NC may be coming to an end. The state and local goverments keep wanting more power and the way they get power is to tax and regulate. The vast majority of the people who move to the Southeast are from states when the norm is to have repressive governments at both the state and local level. NC is one of the fastest growing states in the USA and the population projections up to 2030 show no end in sight. Go to a web site called http://www.city-data.com/forum and go to the NC forums. Everybody and their brother thinks it is the land of milk and honey. Luckily counties in the east and to the south bordering SC will have slow or negative growth mostly due to the lack of economic activity. The snakes, chiggers, skeeters, ticks, red ants, bears, hurricanes and the heat and humitity help to keep alot of people out of the still mostly undeveloped coastal plane. I also own some land in Orangeburg county SC and get the feeling that area will be rural for a long time. Orangeburg county is a place where time stands still. Boeing just announced relocation of some jet production to Charlestown which is about 60 miles away but there is so much undeveloped around the whole area that I don't see much change for at least 30-50 years. My minor in college was economics and my hobby is demograhics. Take care all

ely · November 04, 2009, 09:20:24 AM

i learned this morning here in okla. that when a logger starts a new tract of timber he has to submit a legal description to the mill that he hauls to.

timberfaller390 · November 04, 2009, 09:22:32 AM

there are alot of places in the south where time stands still, like the Dark Corners for instance. Thats where Ga. North and South Carolina all come together.

WDH · November 04, 2009, 06:34:45 PM

Timberfaller,

That dark corner is where I go trout fishing every spring! Not a whole lot of timber cutting there as most of it is National Forest.

thompsontimber · November 04, 2009, 10:27:57 PM

ncguy, I'm all too aware of the situation you are speaking of in NC. I live in the western part of the state in Rutherford County, which has been inexplicably pushing out every industry over the past 10 years and attempting in every way to turn the area into a "retirement community." Quite an influx of yankees and half-backers with plenty of money and even more arrogance, which has led to a surge in special interest groups pushing the politics of the community. There has been a lot of attention given to zoning in the past few years, which we still don't have here but its all around in the surrounding areas. Lots of backlash against such proposals, and it keeps getting voted down by a landslide every time it comes up...yet the county has already "zoned" all the properties and is simply awaiting the day it finally becomes official. No doubt it will in time. Fortunately, when it comes to forest management, both of the Carolinas have done a good job of keeping laws on the books preventing community zoning and permit regulations from being imposed on bonafide forest management work, treating forest landowners and their timber like agriculture. That doesn't stop communities from creating laws forbidding clearcuts and such, but the state laws supercede such local ordinaces when they do pop up on occassion. I totally concur with your observations on the rural lowlands of SC...one of the few areas you can still manage to buy land that can pay for itself with the timber if you look hard enough. When I was working with a land and timber company in SC a few years ago, we sold 40 acres after clearing all the timber in the Campobello area of SC, where there are lots of the "horse folks," and bought 360 acres forested land with the money down state. Better land, excellent timber, just located in the rural backcountry that seems stuck in time with no signs of development or population growth.

timberfaller390 · November 05, 2009, 08:06:16 AM

Quote from: WDH on November 04, 2009, 06:34:45 PM
Timberfaller,

That dark corner is where I go trout fishing every spring! Not a whole lot of timber cutting there as most of it is National Forest.

I have fished the area alot myself. Warwoman and burrell's ford were all family land in the 1800's, I still go to the reunion there every year. When you head up this spring give me some warning and I'll try to meet you and Dodgy in Clayton.

WDH · November 05, 2009, 09:12:34 AM

Timberfaller, you bet. Maybe we could play some music.

I especially love the West Fork of the Chattooga River, hiking in from John Teague Gap, or continuing on up Overflow Creek Road till it ends about nine miles up where Overflow Creek crosses the road through a huge culvert pipe, then hiking on the old closed logging road to the East, and pitching off the mountain down to the junction of Clear Creek and Overflow Creek, then fishing back upstream to the huge culvert pipe. Neither the West Fork of the Chattooga via John Teague Gap or the Clear Creek/Overflow Creek trip are for the faint of heart. The gorge just downstream of Three Forks is really something to experience. That is some super rugged country.