Forest vegetation management and protection of stream quality

Abstract

Globally, forest management activities significantly alter portions of the forest ecosystem on a temporal scale at the local level. Along with this alteration in the landscape comes changes in wildlife habitat and potentially the associated aquatic ecosystem. Most timber producing countries in the world have instituted forest regulations in an effort to respond to public concerns over the degradation of forest sites and to promote sustainability. In Argentina, the regulations are mandatory and designed to maintain plant species diversity, to protect native environment and to protect water quality .Australia allows for each state to provide its own regulation in much the same way as Canada and the United States of America (USA). Tasmania bases its Forest Practices Code on authorizations of the Forest Practices Act of 1985 and Victoria bases its Code of Forest Practices on a number of legislative polices including the Forests Act of 1958, Planning and Environment Act 1987, F1ora and Fauna Guarantee Act 1988, Catchment and Land Protection Act 1994 and others. The National Environment Policy 1981 provides guidance for the codes regulating Brazil's forest management. New Zealand's authorization is based on the Forests Act 1949, Forestry Accord of 1989 and the Resources Management Act of 1992. The Forest Act of 1991 provides the legal authority for South Africa's regulations. In the USA these regulations are based largely on the National Environmental Policy Act 1969 and as amended, the Endangered Species Act 1973, and the Clean Water Act of 1977 and its Amendments, but take the form of voluntary Best Management Practices (BMPs). Streamside management zone (SMZ) width recon1mended in BMPs may range in width from 0 in some instances for intermittent to more than 60 meters for perennial streams. By contrast, some countries require up to 300 m for perennial streams. SMZ requirements for representative countries around the world may be compared (Table 1). While in a few countries, SMZ requirements are based primarily on the objective of protecting water yield and secondarily on quality (South Africa and Australia for example), most countries focus primarily on the issue of water quality. The issues of wildlife habitat and rare and endangered plant species is also a concern in many countries including the USA and Argentina, but these issues are outside the scope of this paper which is concerned only with water quality.

Citation

Michael, Jerry L. 2002. Forest vegetation management and protection of stream quality. In: Frochot, H.; Collet, C.; Balandier, P., comps. Forest vegetation management: technical, environmental and economic challenges: Popular Summaries of the Fourth International Conference on Forest Vegetation Management; 2002 June 17-21; Nancy, France. Champenoux, France: Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique: 279-281.