Using Physical, Chemical and Biological Indicators to Assess Water Quality on the Ouachita National Forest Utilizing Basin Area Stream Survey Methods

The Ouachita National Forest (ONF) has developed a series of Best Management Practices (BMP\u27s) designed to protect water quality and associated beneficial uses (fisheries, municipal water supplies, etc.). A monitoring program is necessary to document the effectiveness of that protection. The Basin Area Stream Survey (BASS) methodology provides a monitoring link from BMP\u27s to the aquatic ecosystems. The goal of BASS is to identify the physical, chemical and biological characteristics of a stream in a format that will allow comparisons with other streams, and indicate when a stream is being impacted. Six index streams within two ecoregions were selected and inventoried in 1990, 1991, and 1992, to serve as baseline data sources. The South Fork of Alum Creek and Bread Creek represent the upper Ouachita Mountain Ecoregion, Caney Creek and Brushy Creek represent the lower Ouachita Mountain Ecoregion, and Jack Creek and Dry Creek represent the Arkansas River Valley Ecoregion

Hydrologic and Nutrient Relationships on a Pine - Hardwood Forest in Southeast Oklahoma

Forest Resource

Predicting watershed erosion production and over-land sediment transport using a GIS, in: Carrying the Torch for Erosion Control: An Olympic Task

ABSTRACT Soil erosion from forested lands can seriously degrade stream water quality. Sediment production and over-land sediment transport models have been developed which predict ecosystem management impacts on soil erosion and movement across watersheds. The predictions of soil erosion are for whole watersheds, not for points within the watershed. Soil erosion and transport models are usually run independently. From a spatial perspective, the models are difficult to define and the output is difficult to interpret. Our research utilizes a user friendly, modular based, Geographic Information System (GIS) for predicting soil erosion and over-land sediment transport under a variety of management practices including road building, timber harvesting, burning, and creation of wildlife food plots, given a range of storm intensities broken into four seasons (i.e., spring, summer, fall, winter). Through the use of a GIS, model predictions of sediment can be spatially distributed across the watershed and displayed as map outputs of eroded soil deposition. The major objective of this paper is to demonstrate how a GIS and a modular modeling approach can be used by land managers to develop alternative management scenarios for cumulative effects assessment in forested watersheds. As improved soil erosion and transport models are developed, new models can be easily exchanged with current models using a GIS as an integrating database tool. &apos

Inventory and Sediment Modeling of Unpaved Roads for Stream Conservation Planning

The streams and rivers of the Ozark Plateaus are an unrivaled natural resource for the region. They provide habitat to some of the North America’s most abundant and rich biodiversity, while also serving as water sources for human drinking, agricultural, and recreational needs. The Nature Conservancy (TNC) has identified several priority watersheds through its Ozarks Ecoregional Conservation Assessment of 2003, where it focuses its on-the ground conservation planning and implementation efforts.Sedimentation from unpaved roads is a primary threat to water quality in Ozark streams. TNC has partnered with various organizations including the US Forest Service (USFS), the Watershed Conservation Resource Center (WCRC), and others to develop a multi-phased approach to address the impacts of unpaved roads on these priority watersheds.The first step in the approach utilizes advanced GIS/GPS technologies to develop a detailed vehicle-based road inventory of the target watershed or subwatershed. Sub-meter differential GPS with customized data dictionaries are used to characterize the location and function of sediment-producing and conveying features of the road infrastructure, including the road surface, prism and slope, ditches, bars, lead-offs, culverts, crossings, and outlets. The road inventory yields a comprehensive geodatabase and map series of the mapped features.A stratified random sample of the inventoried road network is then measured to generate sediment yield predictions on ten percent of the road network. Detailed field measurements are collected with differential GPS and customized data dictionaries. The data are entered into the Water Erosion Prediction Project (WEPP) model, a process-based erosion prediction model developed by multiple federal agencies over the past 20 years. With sediment yields predicted for sample sites, erosion predictions are then extrapolated for the entire study watershed using the road inventory geodatabase.Once sedimentation yields are predicted for each road segment in the entire study area, priority sub-watersheds are identified in the GIS using watershed sediment accumulation tools. These sub-watersheds with high potential for sediment yield may be compared to species inventory data, stream bank erosion surveys, and other land use information to set priorities for conservation planning and prioritization efforts. Priority infrastructure maintenance improvements are also identified through features that were flagged in the road inventory geodatabase as needing repair or replacement.Road maintenance workshops are held with USFS engineers, county road crews, and other partners to transfer the inventory information, present the findings of the study and to demonstrate best management practices for road maintenance.Since 2004, TNC and its partners in the Arkansas have worked in three priority Ozark watersheds to inventory over 600 miles of unpaved roads and 3000 associated point features in an area greater than 900 square miles. The area comprises over thirty 6th level (12-digit) HUCs