SWaMP sponsors Forest Land BMP Workshop
SWaMP was a proud sponsor of the Forest Land Best Management Practices Workshop conducted in early April in partnership with the Lee County Forestry Stewardship Committee, the Alabama Department of Environmental Management, MeadWestvaco, the Alabama Forestry Commission, the AU School of Forestry and Wildlife Sciences, the Alabama Wildlife and Freshwater Fisheries Division, and the Alabama Cooperative Extension System. About 40 landowners from Lee County attended the workshop for presentations and a tour of forest Best Management Practices (BMPs) at the Mary Olive Thomas Demonstration Forest south of Auburn on Moores Mill Road. The purpose of the workshop was to educate owners of forest lands, and associated stakeholders about Alabama’s Forestry BMPs, which were designed to reduce sediment or other nonpoint source pollution to streams and lakes. Workshop attendees received CEUs from Auburn University for attending.
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Ericha Shelton-Nix, Wildlife Biologist with the Wildlife and Freshwater Fisheries Division, registered everyone and handed out workshop packets containing the workshop agenda, copies of the Alabama Forestry Commission’s Alabama’s Best Management Practices for Forestry, the Alabama Clean Water Partnerships Protecting Our Waters – The Tallapoosa River Basin (newspaper inserts), the Alabama Water Watch’s Saugahatchee Creek Watershed – Past, Present and Future, and SWaMP trifold brochures.
Eric Reutebuch, SWaMP Co-coordinator, began the workshop with a presentation titled Landscapes, Watersheds and Water Quality – What are the Connections?. Eric emphasized that the main goal of SWaMP was to clean up the creek through outreach efforts and funding of on-the-ground BMPs that would reduce/intercept pollution flushing off the landscape. He said that phosphorus, along with sediment, is the main pollutant of concern in the creek, and is the reason why the creek is listed as impaired by the state’s environmental management agency, ADEM. Eric referred participants to the SWaMP brochure, explaining that SWaMP, an ADEM-funded 319 project, is the implementation of the first three years of the Saugahatchee Watershed Management Plan. Compilation of the Plan and its implementation have been a combined effort of many local watershed stakeholders including local government, business/industry, resource management agencies, and community groups. Eric then gave brief descriptions of eight on-the-ground projects which included stream restorations, rainwater harvest, a constructed wetland, rain garden construction, a community rain barrel workshop and a landscaper-lawn professional workshop. He mentioned the many SWaMP education/outreach efforts around the Saugahatchee Watershed to inform watershed residents about recent, dramatic changes in the Auburn-Opelika area and how these landscape changes can negatively impact water quality of local streams, ponds and lakes. He gave examples of urban sources and rural sources of nonpoint source pollution, how these pollutants affect local waters, and how we can fix the pollution sources with the installation of proper BMPs. He closed by requesting workshop participants that have degraded lands in the Saugahatchee Watershed that are contributing sediments and nutrients to tributaries or directly to the Saugahatchee to contact SWaMP coordinators for help in resolving these nonpoint source pollution sources.
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The participants then loaded up into wagons and went into the forest to the first stop. John Torbert, Forest Manager with MeadWestvaco, gave a talk on proper forest management to minimize impacts on stream water quality. John described several forest management BMPs that, when implemented properly, would prevent soil erosion and sediment transport into streams, ponds and lakes. He added that these BMPs were required to maintain certification by the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI, go to www.sfiprogram.org for more information). SFI is a program that certifies, through independent third-party audits, that forest management meets rigorous SFI standards that protect soil and stream water quality. He pointed out that clearcut harvesting, when done properly, seldom leads to erosion because there is seldom a lot of bare soil created in the process. Organic matter such leaf litter, branches and fine twigs cover the ground during and immediately after the harvest, and a nearly 100% cover of woody and herbaceous vegetation quickly resprouts after logging. Furthermore, Alabama State Forestry BMPs require streamside management zones (SMZs, or stream riparian buffers) of at least 35 feet on each side of stream to provide a barrier against any overland flow that might occur. He added that the potential for erosion from logging is generally associated with roads and skid trails, and accordingly a number of BMPs are deployed to reduce erosion from these sources. John closed by saying that he has rarely seen stream water quality problems caused by forest harvest practices. In his opinion, unpaved county roads, not forest clearcuts, are the main contributors of sediment in rural Lee County. He said that there are many unpaved county roads that have long stretches of ditches on both sides of the road that transport lots of sediment directly into streams during runoff events
The participants continued on to the second stop of the tour. Andy Guy, the Alabama Forestry Commission’s Lee County Forester, spoke about the development of forestry BMPs and development of the Alabama’s Best Management Practices for Forestry manual. The manual was developed by the Commission and ADEM to instruct private land owners and the forestry industry on the use of BMPs for the sustained management of forest lands and protection of surface waters draining those lands. He indicated that forestry BMPs are for the prevention of water quality problems, and that there is a possibility of water quality problems even if proper BMPs are installed.
Andy continued by describing the Commission’s state-wide forest inspection program. He said that the Commission conducts fly-overs of harvested forest lands all over the state and does random on-the-ground spot inspections in harvested areas to check for proper installation of BMPs. This past year, he said the Commission conducted 246 ground checks. Jim Jeter, Management Specialist with the Commission, indicated that the most common violation is infringement into stream SMZs during forest harvest. Jim explained that SMZs are variable, with a minimum of 35 feet on either side of a stream and increasing in width as the slope of the land increases. Andy concluded by saying that the Commission can advise landowners, at their request, on proper forest land BMPs before the landowner has trees harvested.
At the third stop, Dr. Robert Tufts, professor in the AU School of Forestry and Wildlife Sciences continued the discussion on forest land BMPs for roads and stream crossings. He indicated that most water quality problems associated with stream crossings actually come from the sloped road leading down to the stream crossing. He said that roads should be planned so that they are not near streams (routed on ridge tops as much as possible) except for at the crossing, and cut across slopes instead of straight up slopes so that they aren’t too steep. Dr. Tufts said that the erosive power of water in runoff comes from the product of mass and velocity, therefore, one minimizes erosion by slowing the runoff down. This is accomplished by minimizing the road’s slope (kept to a six percent maximum slope to minimize erosion), sloping the road’s surface so that water sheet-flows off the side of the road instead of channelizing straight down the road, and installation of water bars every 50-100 feet to slow and divert runoff, and effectively dissipate the erosive force of runoff. Skid trails should not run straight up and down slopes, and they should also be water barred and covered with brush after logging to cover bare soil and dissipate energy of runoff.
Dr. Tufts then discussed the three types of road crossings – fords, culverts and bridges. He said to be cautious of installing bridges in certain situations because of liability issues associated with bridge collapses. Fords generally have an advantage over culverts because they won’t blow out. Culverts have a tendency to blow out when a large rainfall/runoff event occurs and the culvert is topped with water. He recommended landowners that do install culverts to put a spillway in the road near the culvert to handle excess flow during a large flood event and prevent culvert failure. He referred workshop participants to the Alabama Forestry Commission’s publication Alabama’s Best Management Practices for Forestry for additional information.
At the final stop of the workshop, all enjoyed a fine barbecue dinner catered by The Barbecue House. Workshop partners plan to conduct another Forest Land BMP Workshop in the fall – check the SWaMP website for updates.