Past studies using these data have established the effects of silviculture treatments on streamflow amounts and water quality within the Ouachita Mountains. These studies parallel those undertaken at other gauged sites within the Interior Highlands, as well as those at Coweeta and the Santee.

Dan Marion, though research hydrologist with the SRS Center for Bottomland Hardwoods, is actually stationed in Hot Springs, AR, where the primary focus of his research is on the effects of forest management on the watershed processes of the upland forests of the Interior Highlands. Marion is using the gauged systems on Alum Creek to quantify the movement of water, sediment, and nutrients—and as the basis for developing models for other areas of the region.

“In contrast to other regions, there’s been no consistent nexus of hydrologic research in the Interior Highlands,” says Marion. “Since the 1930s, the work has shifted among several locations, including Alum Creek and the Koen.” Meanwhile, management goals for forests have shifted from improving timber values to restoring ecosystems and maintaining their integrity. “These newer goals affect our thinking about water resources and research needs,” says Marion. “At the same time, societal concerns about the effects of forest practices have shifted from concerns about floods, to water quality, to downstream or cumulative effects on water resources.”

Marion notes the importance of Alum Creek as a field site for research on upland forest hydrology in Arkansas. “Much of what we know about how to manage Ouachita Mountains’ shortleaf pine and pinehardwoods forests in ways that minimize adverse effects on soils and water comes from Alum Creek,” says Marion.

In the mid–1990s, the scale of research changed as Alum Creek became part of a large ecosystem management study across the upper Lake Winona Basin that encompasses the experimental forest. This new research program investigates the landscape-level effects of different kinds of forest management on vegetation, soils, water, and wildlife. To support this research, three new gauging stations were added to the existing hydrometeorological network at Alum Creek. Similar stations were established in two adjacent basins, as well as in a basin managed using industrial forestry practices. Each basin serves as an example of different silvicultural treatments applied to large (greater than 1,000-acre) areas.

“In addition to evaluating the effects of different treatments on forest streams, this work will provide excellent reference data for streamflow within managed forest landscapes of the Ouachita Mountains,” says Marion. “It may also prove useful in landscape-based wildlife studies, where riparian habitat use by migratory birds and forest bats, for example, may be greatly affected by streamflow occurrence and persistence.”