Some of these trees were several hundred years old when they were cut down. Williams wants the state to enact regulations to allow harvest similar to that in Florida, which reopened its rivers to log divers in February. A decision by the Georgia Department of Natural Resources to lift its moratorium will have to wait at least until a task force appointed by the agency looks into some environmental and legal concerns and makes a recommendation. The DNR fears the river habitat could be damaged with the removal of the old logs. Duane Harris, director of the DNR's Coastal Resources Division, said harvesting the logs also could cause some turbidity by stirring up the silt and mud on the river bottom.
Ownership is another issue.
Many of the logs could belong to the estates of the people who lost them in the river, Harris said. In some cases, ownership is easily resolved because the logs were branded, but the majority are likely to be unmarked, he said. That would make the waterlogged timbers off limits to anyone looking to retrieve them to make a buck. The DNR will determine the number of logs in the Altamaha River this summer and use data collected there to estimate the number of logs in other streams, such as the Ogeechee, Oconee, Ocmulgee and possibly the Satilla and Savannah. Task force member Ben Brewton, who chairs the Coastal Environmental Organization of Georgia Inc., said the group needs more information on ownership, economic impact and potential for environmental harm before making any recommendations.