Vegetative Management and Water Yield

Vegetative Management and
Water Yield
HY-531
Questions
Examine effects of forest management on water
quantity, quality & timing
assess state of knowledge
identify relevant policy implications
identify information & research needs
Advance understanding of connections among
forest hydrology science management policy
Topics include:
sediment related watershed processes
surface & groundwater hydrology
biological & ecological aspects
http://www.forestry.umn.edu/prod/groups/cfans/@pub/@cfans/@forestry/documents/asset/cfans_asset_276676.pdf
Questions
What are new issues that need to be
addressed to ensure clean and plentiful water
from forests?
How can we improve our understanding of
forest hydrology and hydrologic impacts:
Over short & long temporal scales
Over small and large spatial scales
Forest Hydrology Issues
Water scarcity - Role of Forests
Development & the Urbanization of Forests --
Climatic change -- Hydrologic implications:
Changing forest conditions insects, disease,
species composition
Droughts
Floods
Fires
The Water Yield Issue
(USDA Forest Service 2000)
Excluding Alaska 2/3 of water comes from

forested watersheds
14% of water comes from National Forests
(33% in the West)
Marginal value of water from all National
Forest lands at least $3.7 billion
Municipal watersheds should they be
passively or actively managed to sustain high-
quality water ?
Water Yield contd
Much of what we know derived from paired
watershed experiments (USFS) largely
emphasizing forest harvesting effects
A Century of Watershed Lessons (Ice and
Stednick, 2004)
Wagon Wheel Gap Watersheds in Colorado
(1909), Marcell Experimental Forest in MN,
Hubbard Brook, NH; Coweeta, NC; Fraser,CO
Beaver Creek, AZ, H.J. Andrews, OR
Paired Watersheds: Hubbard Brook
Clearcut & Stripcut Evaluation
Paired Watershed Studies
Method used to determine streamflow
response from land use change on watersheds
Can also be used to estimate land use change
effects on Q & ET under certain conditions
Paired Watershed Method
Select two watersheds in close proximity of
one another that are similar in terms of:
Size
Soils
Vegetation
Topography
Geology
Paired Watershed Method..contd
Monitor flow over time at the outlet of both
watersheds
Develop regression relationships of flow (e.g.,
annual water yield) between the two
watersheds, so you can predict the flow of one
watershed QB from the flow of the other
watershed QA.
This is the calibration period
Develop Regression Relationship:
Streamflow (inches/yr)
QB QA
20 25
12 16
23 29
Etc. Etc.
QB = -1.64 + 0.86 QA
Apply Treatment to Watershed B
For example:
clearcut the forest
remove all living vegetation
convert from shrubland to grassland
Then measure Q from both watersheds over
time and determine how predicted
QB differs from the observed QB after
treatment
Streamflow (inches/yr)
Observed QA Predicted Difference

QBo QBp QBo - QBp
24 20 15.5 8.5
19 16 12.1 7.0
24 24 19.0 5.0
Average increase in Q over 3 years
= (8.5 + 7.0 + 5.0) / 3
= 6.8 inches
So, can we then state that ET was reduced by
6.8 inches over 3 years following vegetation
removal?
Influence of Forests & Forest
Management in Snow Regimes
Small openings of 1 x ht of trees have
increased deposition & reduced melt rates
Melt rates a function of size of openings:
Large openings > forest stands > small openings in
forests
Soil moisture highest in openings and lowest
in forests
In Rockies, harvesting 30-50% of watershed
can increase annual Q by 2 inches
Water Yield Effects of Forest
Management
In non-cloud forest systems, removal of forest
biomass increases water yield
Converting from forest to agriculture, urban, etc.
Replacing deep rooted (forests) with shallow
rooted vegetation
Converting conifers to hardwoods can
increase Q
What have we learned?
Forests are consumers of water
Forest removal increases water flow in most
instances linked to biomass removal; as
forests re-grow the increases diminish
Opportunities to increase water supplies from
forest management are limited
Importantly, conversions of forest to
agricultural and urban landscapes increases
water yield over longer periods of time
Increasing water yield Can we
increase water supplies?
Upper watersheds small areas affected by
changing vegetation conditions
Limitations in drylands where precipitation <
450 mm/year
Environmental and economic constraints
Losses of water from uplands to reservoir sites
Increases in water yield come during high flow
periods in snow zones
Forests and Floods
Drowning in fiction or thriving on facts? (FAO,2005)
Do forests prevent floods?

Raphael Zon (1927) Floods which are
produced by exceptional meteorological
conditions cannot be prevented by forests,
but without their mitigating influence the
floods are more severe and destructive.
Zon had it right up to a point!
Mature forest
hydrograph
With 50%
of the upland aspen
forest clearcut,
snowmelt peaks become
de-synchronized
yielding two smaller
peak flows
Marcell Experimental Forest, northern Minnesota, watershed no. 4

Effects of Land Use Change
The change is caused by more rapid snowmelt
or by more rapid delivery of rain
Either permanent conversion to open areas
(agriculture, towns, roads, power lines, etc.)
or high rates of forest harvest (more than 1%
per year)
Will cause the bankfull flows that shape
channels to double (or triple)
How much land use change does
it take to cause these changes ?
Using a basin with all 15 year to 150 year aged
forests as the normal condition
Converting the basin to agriculture would
actually reduce bankfull flows about 20%
Converting 2/3 of the basin to agriculture
would double or triple bankfull flows
Combinations of open land and young forest
land (< 15 years old) does the same thing
Effects of changing flow regimes
Soil erosion surface, gully and soil mass
movement
Stream Channel adjustments
Integrated Watershed Management
Approach
Responding to a Changing Forest
Landscape
Forest Change and Fragmentation:
Watershed Implications
Fragmentation of forests:
permanent conversions of forest parcels to
homes & urban development is occurring
warming climate -- will some forests become
grasslands, will growing season for crops expand?
will forest plantations expand?
Managing forests -- should be coordinated
with managing watersheds that contain forest
stands?
Landscape Dynamics in Western Himalaya - Mandhala Watershed, Himachal Pradesh, India . Ramachandran et. al.
What is Needed?
Predictions of hydrologic and water quality
responses to changing forest landscapes
Quantify and value the environmental
services of forests provide policy makers
with economic justification for sustaining
forests where warranted!
Apply new technologies for planners and
managers to evaluate landscape changes and
determine watershed management responses
Connecting Research, Monitoring &
Models to Management
Coping with changes & uncertainty of the future
Decades of forest hydrology research focused on
timber harvesting need to examine watershed
changes that we now see and envision in the
future
New research agenda needed that develops the
models and other tools for planners and
managers to scale-up research & consider
scenarios of change due to climate and land use
Monitoring is essential to test & validate models
Adaptive Management
Cumulative Watershed Effects must be
addressed; we must translate watershed change
to appropriate site responses
Monitoring is KEY for research and management
at appropriate scales and sustained over time
Managers need to monitor and evaluate site
responses in order to manage timely
assessments are critical
Coordination & cooperation among political units
and agencies is essential, e.g., through Watershed
Management Districts, River Basin Commissions?
Conclusions
Forests play a vital hydrologic role and in
sustaining high quality water in the Upper
watersheds this role must be quantified &
valued
Land and water must be managed in concert with
one another An integrated approach
Institutional and policy changes are necessary to
achieve integrated watershed management
Researchers, planners & managers must have an
interdisciplinary perspective

Vegetative Management and Water Yield

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Vegetative Management and Water Yield

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Vegetative Management and

Excluding Alaska 2/3 of water comes from

Observed QA Predicted Difference

Do forests prevent floods?

Marcell Experimental Forest, northern Minnesota, watershed no. 4

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