Southern Forest Resource Assessment led by the USDA Forest Service's Southern Region and Southern Research Station in collaboration with the USEPA, US Fish & Wildlife, TVA, and state forestry agencies of the Southern United States

Broad Category: Watersheds, Aquatic/Riparian Ecosystems, and Forested Wetlands

Question AQUA-3:  How have forest management activities and other forest uses influenced water quality, aquatic habitat, and designated uses in forested watersheds?

Question Manager:  Stephanie Fulton, US EPA/OPM/Planning and Analysis Branch, and Ben West, US EPA/EAD

Specific points to be addressed: 

1. Evaluate how these activities have and can influence hydrologic response.
2. Include a consideration of all relevant water quality parameters: biological, chemical and physical.
3. Examine effects of pesticides, sediment, and fertilizer.
4. Examine the influence of these activities on municipal water supplies.
5. Discuss how impacts may differ depending on the size and intensity of harvest and other treatments.
6. Identify any differences in water quality impacts of hardwood versus pine management and plantation versus natural stands.

Overview:

Evaluate the impacts of: a) forest management activities such as harvesting and other regeneration treatments, transportation access, use of chemicals, and site prep and b) other forest uses including recreation and second home development on water quality parameters (biological, physical, chemical), water quantity (hydrologic response and municipal water supplies), aquatic habitat, and designated uses in forested watersheds.

Method of Analysis:

1)  Perform literature and data search (addresses all specific points)

2)  Assess legacy deposits of sediments based on literature search and soil or other surveys (addresses specific points b, c, and d)

3)  Evaluate the data quality and limitations of data sets

4)  Assess the relevance of data for monitoring the influence of forest management activities on water quality, quantity, hydrologic response, aquatic habitat, and beneficial uses

5)  Address scaling issues affecting analyses, i.e., water quality at the local vs. watershed vs. state levels

6)  Assess the utility of small scale (i.e., local) studies (see “Data Sources”) in a regional analysis of water quality impacts.

7)  Procure and compile relevant data:

1. Summarize land use categories by i) watershed and ii) 100-m riparian buffers (MRLC data)

2. Summarize 303d lists (GA in QC, avail. end of march; KY and TN in-house, must be QA/QC’d; other state’s status uncertain)

3. Summarize State Basin Status Reports

4. Summarize and compare state water quality monitoring data

8)  Intersect water quality monitoring data with land use (MRLC?) to locate watersheds that both a) have monitoring data and b) are largely forested (threshold from literature?) (11- or preferably 14-digit HUCs?  Location of water quality monitoring stations will dictate scale at which we can do the analyses)

9)  Aggregate data up to the watershed, county, and state levels

10)  Use FIA data to calculate % cut at 8-digit HUC level

11)  Spatial analysis using land use information to measure the location and intensity of harvesting activities and impacts on water quality.  Overlay NALC NDVI data with FIA, MRLC, to identify size, location, and composition of vegetation removals/regrowth.  Then overlay with water quality data.

Data Sources:

·  State Water Quality Monitoring Programs

·  USGS Water Quality data (NWQAA?) River stage data??

·  NOAA??

·  STORET (need to evaluate utility e.g., permitted sites and monitored sites?, dates (trend analysis?), parameters?)

·  303d Lists

·  Wadeable Streams data (400 plots; 50 measured summer ‘99 and re-measured summer ‘00)

·  Local, site specific studies

·  Coweeta Hydrologic Lab

·  Forest Watershed Project in Charleston looking at Coastal Plain focused on forest management impacts

·  Was/is a similar project (Bradford Watershed) out of Gainesville, FL (Contacts:  Larry Kornack, UFL [inherited Bradford data] Project Leader, SRS; Dr. Commerford, UFL); collaboration between university, SRS, etc.

·  LTER Uplands Research Lab in Gatlinburg, TN associated with Smoky Mtns. NP; research on prescribed fire; expert on brook trout

·  Walker Branch Biological Sciences Division, ORNL; 3 gauged streams in HW forest in Walker Branch Watershed (nutrient & water chemistry studies)

·  Universities: (e.g., Austin, State Forest Service)

·  Wayne Skaggs, NC State (Ag/Eng.?) has a good water quality set on NC

·  Jim Gregory, NC State

·  WV (land grant university) extension research on the impacts of roads

·  Auburn University (Contact:  Bob Rummer, USFS Forestry Sciences Lab, engineering research on roads)

·     Bob Fledderman, Westvaco:  water quality studies (P, N, etc.) in WV (since late ‘70s), SC (since early ‘80’s)

·  Bowater

·  Temple Inland (one of the better water quality studies by industry; 5-7 watersheds)

·  NCASI

·  FL State Division of Forestry study on BMP effectiveness based on bioassessments (J. Vowell sending)

·  Tim Adams PhD on BMP effectiveness

·  Mickey Henson, NC Forest Service, Raleigh:  study on BMP compliance

·  Chattooga River Basin Study

·  Rayonnier property, Plummer Creek, made ’95 305b report and 303d list ostensibly due to nutrients/conductivity, 95% industry land, intensively managed; took 2 samples to get it on the list and 450 (over a years worth of data) to get it off (J. Vowell sending when complete in a few months)

Products:

1)  Literature search and synthesis

2)  GIS layers including water quality monitoring data, land use/land cover, forest patch size, % forest

3)  Table of qualitative impacts (quantitative where possible) of forest management activities on water quality, quantity, hydrologic response, aquatic habitat, and beneficial uses by watershed and state

4)  Table of state 303d waters listed for impairments by nutrients, TSS, and sedimentation

5)  Others?

Collaborators and Sources:

·  See “Data Sources”

·  Might want to think of adding Jim Patric to our expert team; located in Marysville, TN

·  Contact Dan Marion, Forest Hydrology Lab, Oxford, MS; re: reactivated work in Ouachita, AR (highlands) (Miller et al., 1988) and Ursic (1970, 1991) studies on Mississippi River, Coastal Plain/Piedmont loessel soils (low elevation sediment studies)

Links to Other Questions:

We want to summarize FIA data (e.g., cover type, forest/non-forest, natural vs. planted) at the finest scale possible; piggyback with other broad categories such as Forest Extent, Conditions, and Health; Landscapes/Terrestrial Ecosystems; etc.

Unresolved issues

1)  Digital files of 303dlisted waters are only available for GA (avail. in Mar.) and MS.  All others listings are available in hardcopy only (303d reports)

2)  Uncertain of the quality, availability, georeferencing of water quality monitoring data at the regional scale.  The only statistically reliable data set we know of is the Wadeable Streams project (part of REAP).  It is uncertain when this data will be available but possibly by the end of summer ‘00.

3)  We are uncertain of the impacts of extrapolating small scale local studies to assess regional or ecoregional scale water quality impacts

4)  Monitoring stations tend be on lower order streams where the influence of other land use activities obscures the influence of forest activities on water quality, quantity, etc.

5)  No state water quality standards, or standards vary by state

6)  Legacy land use/sediment deposits contribute to current and future sediment loads and must be accounted for.  Not certain how much data is available on this subject.

7)  Currency of FIA data:  may not be able to calculate accurate and up-to-date forest clearing rates

8)  Definitions (e.g., forested, forest management activities)

Cited and Other Relevant Literature:
(all from Duke literature search)

Beasley, R.S. 1979.  Intensive site preparation and sediment losses on steep watersheds in the Gulf Coastal Plain.  Soil Science Society of America Journal 43:412-417.

Blackmon, B.G. ed.  1985.  Proceedings of Forestry and Water Quality: A Mid-South Symposium.  Little Rock, AR.  Mauy8-9, 1985.  Cooperative Extension Service, University of Arkansas, Monticello, AR.  (Full of good stuff.)

Commerford, N.B., D. G. Neary, and R.G. Mansell.  1992.  The effectiveness of buffer strips for ameliorating offsite transport of sediment, nutrients, and pesticides from silvicultural operations.  NCASI Technical bulletin No. 631.

Kochenderfer, J.N., and Aubertin. 1975.  Effects of management practices on water quality and quantity:  Fernow Experimental Forest, WV.  USDA Forest Service General Technical Report NE-13.

Marion, D.A. and S.J. Ursic. 1992.  Sediment production in forests of the Coastal Plain, Piedmont, and Interior Highlands.  In EPA/USFS Technical Workshop on Sediments, Corvallis, OR.

Miller, E.L., R.S. Beasley, E.R. Lawson.  1988.  Forest harvest and site preparation effects on erosion and sedimentation in the Ouachita Mountains.  Journal of Environmental Quality 17:215-225.

Neary, D.G., W.T. Swank, and H. Riekerk.  1989.  An overview of nonpoint source pollution in the southern United States.  pp. 1-7.  In: D.D. Hook and R. Lea, eds.  Proceedings of the symposium: The forested wetlands of the Southern United States.  1988 July 12-14; Orlando, Fl.  Gen. Tech. Rep. SE-50.  Asheville, NC: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Southeastern Forest Experiment Station.

Patric, J.H., J.O. Evans, and J.D. Helvey. 1984. Summary of sediment yield data from forested land in the United States.  Journal of Forestry 82:101-104.  (Best paper written on this topic.)

Swank, W.T. 1988.  Stream chemistry responses to disturbance.   In: Swank, W.T. and D.A. Crossley (eds.).  Forest Hydrology and Ecology at Coweeta pp. 339-358.  Springer-Verlag, New York.

Swank, W.T. 1988.  Stream chemistry responses without disturbance.   In: Swank, W.T. and D.A. Crossley (eds.).  Forest Hydrology and Ecology at Coweeta pp. ___-___.  Springer-Verlag, New York.

Ursic, J.S.  1970.  Hydrologic effects of prescribed burning and deadening upland hardwoods in northern Mississippi.  USDA Forest Service Res. Pap./ SO-54.  New Orleans, LA.

Ursic, J.S.  1991.  Hydrologic effects of two methods of harvesting mature southern pine.  Water Resources Bulletin 27:303-315.

 modified: 9-DEC-2003