Opportunities to assess past, current, and future impacts from forest management

We often hear how much progress point source activities have made in protecting water quality, but similar progress has also been made in controlling forestry nonpoint source impacts. Evidence from retrospective watershed studies and water quality modeling indicates that sediment impacts associated with current management practices are approximately 10 to 30% of those when Best Management Practices (BMPs) were not utilized. Opportunities; to assess past and current impacts using retrospective watershed studies are described for the Piedmont Region of the South, the Alto Watersheds in Texas, Caspar Creek in California, and the Alsea Watersheds in Oregon. Two opportunities to use watershed models to assess past and current impacts are described for Dollar Creek and Mica Creek both in Idaho. Both watershed studies and modeling can also be used to evaluate the consequences of management trends on future water quality impacts and to refine the BMPs that reduce impacts.