The purpose of this manual is to inform landowners, foresters, timber buyers, loggers, site preparation and reforestation contractors, and others involved with silvicultural operations about common-sense, economical and effective practices to minimize non-point source pollution (soil erosion and stream sedimentation) and thermal pollution. These minimum practices are called BEST MANAGEMENT PRACTICES and are commonly referred to as BMPs.

Georgia’s forestry BMP manual (revised in 1999 and 2009) recommends a 100 foot wide Streamside Management Zone, measured from the stream bank horizontally outward away from the stream; to be implemented on all Georgia designated primary or secondary trout streams – and tributaries (p. 11 Georgia’s BMPs for Forestry manual).

Overview of forest resources in Georgia based on an inventory conducted by the U.S. Forest Service, Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) program, the Southern Research Station (SRS) in cooperation with the Georgia Forestry Commission.

During a previous survey of the primary wood-using industries in Georgia, the following companies reported to GFC personnel that their listed sawmills used mechanical grading systems. Please note that not all mills responded to this question and there may be other Georgia mills that utilize mechanical lumber grading. Final determination will depend upon individual contact with the mills.

VSmoke-Web is a web-based implementation of VSmoke (Lavdas, 1996) and is designed to assist with planning prescribed burns in the Southern United States.