Cumulative silvicultural impacts on watersheds: a hydrologic and regulatory dilemma [Timber harvests, erosion, sedimentation, California, Oregon]

Because of the nature of watersheds, the hydrologic and erosional impacts of logging and related road-building activities may move offsite, affecting areas downslope and downstream from the operation. The degree to which this occurs depends on the interaction of many variables, including soils, bedrock geology, vegetation, the timing, and size of storm events, logging technology, and operator performance. In parts of northwestern California, these variables combine to produce significant water quality degradation, with resulting damage to anadromous fish habitat. Examination of recent aerial photographs, combined with a review of public records, shows that many timber harvest operations were concentrated in a single 83 sq km watershed in the lower Klamath River Basin within the past decade. The resulting soil disturbance in this case seems likely to result in cumulative off-site water quality degradation in the lower portion of the Basin. In California, both state and federal laws require consideration of possible cumulative effects of multiple timber harvest operations. In spite of recent reforms that have given the state a larger role in regulating forest practices on private land, each timber harvest plan is still evaluated in isolation from other plans in the same watershed. A process of collaborative state-private watershed planning with increased input of geologic information offers the best long-term approach to the problem of assessing cumulative effects of multiple timber harvest operations. Such a reform could ultimately emerge from the ongoing water quality planning process under Section 208 of the amended Federal Water Pollution Control Act. (Refs. 51).