FORESTRY BMP IMPLEMENTATION COSTS FOR VIRGINIA

Forestry Best Management Practices (BMPs) are operational techniques u sed to protect water quality during timber harvesting operations. The implementation cost of BMPs is important to loggers, forest landowners , and the forest industry. This study provides an estimate of BMP impl ementation cost on a per harvested acre basis for the coastal plain, p iedmont, and mountains of Virginia. BMPs were recorded during field in spections of 46 sample timber harvest sites. Loggers provided estimate s of the cost of individual BMPs. From this data, the median per harve sted acre BMP implementation cost was $8.11 for the coastal plain, $25 .75 for the piedmont, and $29.29 for the mountains. Per acre BMP imple mentation costs on sample harvest sites ranged from $3.17 for a large harvest site in the coastal plain with no perennial streams to $94.41 for a small tract in the mountains with perennial streams, steep slope s, and difficult access.