Established Silvicultural Operations

As previously mentioned, forestry operations must be part of an established silvicultural operation in order to be exempt from permit requirements under Section 404 of the Clean Water Act.

Determining what constitutes established, or ongoing, operations can be difficult at times. Listed below are some, but not all, indicators of established operations:

• written management plan,
• past harvesting with forest regeneration/coppice,
• fire, insect, or disease control to protect timber,
• boundary line maintenance,enrolled in a third party certification program, and/or
• forest roads follow BMP guidelines.