Logging effects on streamflow: water yields and summer flows at Caspar Creek in northwestern California

Elizabeth Keppeler; Robert Ziemer

Treesearch

Logging effects on streamflow: water yields and summer flows at Caspar Creek in northwestern California

Informally Refereed

Authors:

Elizabeth Keppeler, Robert Ziemer

Year:

1990

Type:

Miscellaneous Publication

Station:

Pacific Southwest Research Station

Source:

Water Resources Research 26(7): 1669-1679.

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Download (PDF 346 KB): https://research.fs.usda.gov/download/treesearch/7796.pdf

Abstract

Streamflow data for a 21-year period were analyzed to determine the effects of selective tractor harvesting of second-growth Douglas fir and redwood forest on the volume, timing, and duration of low flows and annual water yield in northwestern California. The flow response to logging was highly variable. Some of this variability was correlated with antecedent precipitation conditions. Statistically significant increases in streamflow were detected for both the annual period and the low-flow season. Relative increases in water yield were greater for the summer low-flow period than for annual flows, but these summer flow increases generally disappeared within 5 years.

Keywords

PSW4351, Caspar Creek, streamflow, water yields, timber harvesting, hydrograph lag time, sediment

Citation

Keppeler, Elizabeth T.; Ziemer, Robert R. 1990. Logging effects on streamflow: water yields and summer flows at Caspar Creek in northwestern California. Water Resources Research 26(7): 1669-1679.