More than 1,300 logging operations have been cited over the last three years for violating West Virginia's timber law. Only one of them has ever been fined. If done wrong, logging can destroy streams.
Water can run off logging roads, pick up soil and pack streams with sediment.
Fish and other aquatic life can be choked to death. Banks can be left bare and open to erosion. But like most Appalachian states, West Virginia relies on a good-faith effort of loggers to protect the environment. There are no mandatory rules for how to cut timber. The West Virginia Division of Forestry says the state's voluntary logging guidelines have reduced environmental problems associated with timber operations.