Effects of forest harvesting best management practices on surface water quality in the Virginia coastal plain

Three small watersheds located in Westmoreland County, Virginia, were monitored to evaluate the impact of forest clearcutting on surface water quality and to evaluate the effectiveness of forestry best management practices (BMPs) for minimizing hydrologic and water quality impacts associated with timber harvesting. One watershed (7.9 ha) was clearcut without implementation of BMPs, one watershed (8.5 ha) was clearcut with the implementation of BMPs and a third watershed (9.8 ha) was left undisturbed as a control Forest clearcutting without BMP implementation reduced storm runoff volume and did not significantly change peak flow rates. Following site preparation, both storm flow volumes and peak flow rates decreased significantly. For the watershed with BMP implementation, storm flow volume decreased significantly following harvest, while peakflow increased. Site preparation did not change storm flow volumes over post-harvest conditions, bur did significantly reduce storm peak flow rates. Disruptions in subsurface flow pathways during harvest or rapid growth of understory vegetation following harvest could have caused these hydrologic changes. Harvest and site preparation activities significantly increased the loss of sediment and nutrients during storm events, Storm event concentrations and loadings of sediment, nitrogen, and phosphorus increased significantly following forest clearcutting and site preparation of the No-BMP watershed. Both the BMP watershed and the Control watershed showed few changes in pollutant storm concentrations or loadings throughout the study. Results of this study indicate forest clearcutting and site preparation without BMPs can cause significant increases in sediment and nutrient concentrations and loadings in the Virginia Coastal Plain. However these impacts can be greatly reduced by implementing a system of BMPs on the watershed during harvesting activities.