One day last week, a very concerned citizen called me and said, “someone is pulling logs out of the river at Zirkle!”
My first thought was “No way.” This is WMA land. These logs have been on the bottom of the Little Satilla for 100+ years.
How can they be doing it without destroying fish beds and wildlife habitat? Not to mention Zirkle should be a historic landmark, if it isn’t.
I have taken pictures of fish beds and otter right where the logs were being taken out of the river. I wondered how this could be legal.
Famous actor Ossie Davis once lived here. It was the second largest town in Pierce County with four or five hundred people living there.
Not much is there now except the old steel dam which was installed over 100 years ago.
For as long as I can remember, I have always thought this was illegal. I was not the only one.
I rode over and took pictures and sent them to several people, including Gordon Rogers, our first Satillariverkeeper, Shannon Gregory, our present Satillariverkeeper, and a few loggers who have logged most of their lives and several other people.
Each said they thought this was illegal, especially with them having to cut down smaller trees to even have an opening wide enough to get to the logs.
I even received a few calls from the higher ups with DNR (Department of Natural Resources) who informed me that this was perfectly LEGAL and no permit is required.
Wow! I understand the fishermen wanting to get the logs out of the way so they can maneuver the river better, but like I say, it has always been considered illegal - at least I thought so.
What I was told is it (logging) can be done as long as no tractor or truck is actually in the river itself. But, a winch or chain can be used.
I told DNR I really thought this was opening up a huge can of worms if every Tom, Dick and Harry thinks he can make a dollar off of these ancient logs by pulling them out of the river, destroying the natural habitat and possibly putting these tractors or trucks into the river while doing it — accidently or not.
The DNR person I was talking with agreed, but said it has always been legal to do. That is still very hard for me to believe.
They (loggers) are very near the old steel dam. I really hope no accident happens and destroys it in the process.
I know there are logs on the bottom of the nearly 250 miles of the Big and Little Satilla Rivers. I hope this does not destroy our beautiful rivers with its natural habitats by all of this.
• Wayne Morgan is freelance wildlife photographer and author.
