Call Forestry Service before allowing logging

o the editor:
An out-of-town company came into Anderson County to log my hardwood trees. The owner offered such a great deal (so it seemed) to cut logs on our 170 acres.
He promised the moon.
We live two-thirds of a mile back a dirt road. His first promise was to build a road out of special material to be smooth for us and hold up forever.
Second, the money offer was going to be nice enough we figured we could get a nicer vehicle to take our young daughter to school. We live back, as I said, too far for her to walk through two creeks and lots of mud holes. Don’t forget the rain we’ve had this time, she’d had to float.
Third, he wanted to take down fences and so many other things. We said OK as he promised to fix everything before he finished and left.
They drug giant trees on the ground, which made bare ground and deep ditches everywhere. The ditches now are semi-creeks. All were to be leveled and every place bare to be reseeded. There is so much more to say but you’d have to see it to understand the damage they have done.
Needless to say, they got the logs and never carried out one promise. We got so little money and the farm has been raped. Believe it or not, he told us it would be three more weeks before he’d be done. They left to go home. Late that night they slipped back in and slipped all of their equipment out.
We’ve not heard from them since, even though on his last day he said we’d have three more checks coming. Wrong again.
I want to caution all of you landowners if you have logs you want to sale, contact the US Forestry Service before you sign with any logger. This we found out too late. I don’t want it to be too late for you.
Contact the forestry service before you sign with a logger. They will fight for your rights and the logger will have to obey the law or they’ll close him up and take him to court on your behalf. I wish you better times than we have had.
Melinda Campbell
Lawrenceburg