Forestry Best Management Practices for Water and Wildlife in Florida: What's in It for Me?

The goal of these BMPs is to avoid or minimize impacts to streams, wetlands, and listed species and reduce pollutant loads to state waters. Because they are known to be effective, if the BMPs are implemented as intended, the forester enjoys a presumption of compliance with state regulations governing listed species and a presumption of compliance with water quality standards, with protection for inadvertent violations. While the CWA makes it unlawful to discharge a pollutant from a "point source" without a permit, nonpoint sources of pollution like agricultural and forestry activities are addressed through resource management planning and voluntary incentive-based programs. Because nonpoint source pollution causes approximately 60 percent of water quality impairments, Congress amended the CWA in 1987 to establish the Nonpoint Source Pollution Management Program under section 319. Code r. 5I-6.003. Because of these presumptions (as well as the periodic updating of the QBMP Manual), implementation of these QBMPs on forest lands in Florida has been steadily increasing since enactment, and foresters are discovering the economic benefits of enrolling in the QBMPs outweigh the costs. According to research done by Forisk Consulting, LLC, a research consultancy that analyzes forest supplies, wood demand, and timber pricing, 97 percent of all the pulpwood harvested in the Southeast goes to Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI)-certified or Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)certified pulp mills.