Questions while driving from Wolfeboro to Laconia

[Winnigirl]

That's awful. Thank you for the pictures.

[Just Sold]

I went by on East Side Drive today and there is a small brook that flows from the clear cut area between some cottages right into Alton Bay near a boat house

[upthesaukee]

Great picture, RG, but it only shows half the devastation of that hillside. It is clear cut all the way to the base of the trees you see by the houses on East Side Dr.

I also went by the site and there is indeed new signs of work going on. Looks like there is more logs being brought out now.

[Slickcraft]

Here is a link to a summary of the state laws:
http://extension.unh.edu/resources/f...253_rep274.pdf

There are restrictions on clear cutting within certain distances from roads (150'), streams (50') and great ponds (150'). Outside of that I don't see any restriction to clear cutting in state law. There are restrictions relative to wetlands and large areas of terrain alteration.

Prior to harvest an "intent to cut" must be submitted to the town and signed by the BOS. This however primarly relates to collection of the timber tax and serves as notice to the pending activity. Other than monitoring for compliance with the state laws and collecting the timber tax, unfortunately I am not aware of any authority that a town has. Normally when the state preempts the regulation of certain activities, town's have little or no ability to impose additional regulations.

There is another clear cut area in Alton much larger than that pictured here. On Cherry Valley Road, Rt 11A, north side, last lot in Alton along the Gilford boundary. Look north along the ridge line when near Laura Lane on 11A.

[Belmont Resident]

I've been driving by this area recently and one thing I noticed is the equipment looks to have come from a war zone.
It looks like one skidder is broken down, the other is quite antiquated, while the log truck looks to be just barely road worthy.
My guess would be the landowner is raping every dime they can get out of the land then putting it up for sale with views and the next owner of the land will be responsible for taking care of necessary drainage issues.
Has anyone thought of contacting the state and informing them of the possible problems of sediment transfer into the lake?
Didn't they shut down that project by the Weirs for lots of runoff violations years ago? That land is up on a hill overlooking the lake as well with a road in between.
Maybe someone should drop a dime!!