Sediment yield response to sediment reduction strategies implemented for 10 years in watersheds managed for industrial forestry in northern California
This article is part of a larger document. View the larger document here.Abstract
For the past decade, the productive forestlands now owned and operated by the Humboldt Redwood Company have been managed with low impact practices designed to reduce sediment delivery according to voluntary agreements and regulatory requirements of state and federal agencies. These timberlands located in the erosive sedimentary terrain of the northern coast of California have been extensively roaded and several generations of redwood dominated forests have been clear-cut logged since the 1860s. Intensive watershed and property-wide studies of sediment processes within the past 50 years when information is most reliable have created watershed sediment budgets and documented significant sediment impacts from past management activities. Forest operations now include geologic hazard avoidance and an extensive road upgrading and removal program to minimize the dominant sediment sources. Over the past 10 years, suspended sediment and streamflow have been continuously monitored at a number of locations in the mainstems and major tributaries of Freshwater Creek and Elk River. In this paper we explore the extent of sediment reduction in the watersheds and effects on water quality that may be evident in the relatively short monitoring record.