Water Quality and Forests
With 80 percent of the freshwater resources in the United States originating in forests, having healthy forests is critical to having clean water. The quality of water draining from forested watersheds is typically the highest in the country. Forests absorb rainfall, refill aquifers, slow and filter stormwater runoff, reduce floods, and provide habitat for fish and wildlife.
Approximately 935,000 miles of rivers and streams flow across the South. These waterways are important in defining the landscape and in providing habitat for many of the South’s plants and animals. They also have significant economic values that are of great importance but are often overlooked. Rivers, lakes, estuaries, and wetlands provide flood protection and support industry. Recreation activities such as fishing, boating, and rafting generate jobs, economic benefits, and tax revenue to the region. In addition, much of the South’s drinking water is obtained from surface-water sources.
As the South continues to enjoy strong economic growth, increasing demands and threats are placed upon our river systems. These threats directly affect the natural and historical heritage of our rivers, and, ultimately, public health and quality of life. Threats are varied and include pollution and impacts from many sources, including residential development, construction, municipal and industrial stormwater runoff, agricultural runoff (containing sediments, pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizers), deforestation, impoundments, channel alteration, and introduction of exotic species.
In recognition of these threats, there is a growing public awareness of the importance of water resources and the need to manage land to protect, maintain, and restore water quality. All southern states have adopted a watershed-based approach to controlling water pollution and improving water quality. A watershed is an area of land in which water flows across the land surface and drains into a particular marsh, stream, river, or lake. Watersheds can vary in size from a few acres to thousands of acres (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency 2001d). A watershed management approach accounts for a watershed’s unique needs and recognizes that water quality is a function of not just one stream, but rather the entire watershed.
Source: Southern Forest Resource Assessment, U.S. Forest Service, 2002.
Forestry Best Management Practices
State forestry agencies are typically designated by Governors as the lead agency for the forestry Best Management Practices (BMP) program portion of state water quality management plans. These BMP programs focus on education of landowners, loggers and foresters about the threats to water quality and provide technical assistance on how to minimize those threats through the use of forestry BMPs.
Best Management Practices are the cornerstone of the forestry community’s approach to protecting water resources during and after forest management activities such as harvesting, site preparation, planting, fertilizer application, pest management, road construction , and fire management. Most of these activities involve some degree of ground disturbance.
Aquatic conditions most likely to be impacted by forest treatments include water temperature, sediment and nutrient concentrations, stream channel stability, aquatic habitat quality, and toxic contamination. The purpose of forestry BMPs is to eliminate or mitigate these effects.
Although forest management ranks low among water-impairing land use activities in the South, impacts from forest management activities can be considerable if BMPs are not applied. BMPs include such measures as leaving a buffer zone of trees next to a stream, installing a culvert to cross a stream, or establishing grass on forest roads to prevent erosion.
While it is the responsibility of the landowner to ensure that water pollution does not occur from forestry operations, the professional resource manager and equipment operators working for a landowner also have an ethical responsibility to ensure that practices preformed do not cause pollution.
For state-specific BMP guidelines, visit your state forestry agency's Web site.
Water Quality Guidelines
Implementation of Forestry Best Management Practices: A Southern Region Report (PDF)
This regional report on forestry BMP implementation monitoring is the first in a planned series to be published every three to five years. The report provides information for the purpose of continuously improving monitoring methods and BMP implementation, and promotes consistency among southern states for this activity. It includes the guidelines, “Silviculture Best Management Practices Implementation Monitoring: A Framework for State Forestry Agencies,” developed by the SGSF Water Resources Committee.
Under Section 404 of the Federal Clean Water Act, exemptions are provided for “normal silviculture” that are “part of an established (i.e., on-going)” operation. The term on-going has been generally interpreted to mean a continued forestry use (not a change in use) that can be supported by on-the-ground observations, activities and other related evidence. At the request of the Environmental Protection Agency, the SGSF's Water Resource Committee prepared this general guidance document to assist field representatives in determining ongoing silvicultural practices in bottomland hardwood and cypress swamps.
BMP Management Measures courtesy of Alabama Forestry Commission
