Review of the TFW Monitoring Program: Watershed-Scale Monitoring Pilot Project (Draft) (Schuett-Hames, 1999)

Abstract

Forested landscapes in Washington State are managed by a state forest practice management system that includes Washington forest practice rules, Watershed Analyses and landowner landscape plans. One objective of the management system is to protect aquatic resources and the forest practice rules are currently being changed to increase protection. Monitoring at the watershed scale is proposed as an essential requirement to evaluate the effectiveness of the new forest practices. The Center for Streamside Studies initially responded to a Request for Proposals from the Timber-Fish-Wildlife (TFW) Effectiveness Monitoring and Evaluation Program to provide a Conceptual Framework, Design Process and Program Standards for Watershed Effectiveness Monitoring. After initial discussions it was decided that an appropriate initial step was to provide a review of the document entitled "TFW Monitoring Program Watershed-Scale Monitoring Pilot Project" (Schuett-Hames 1999). Development of appropriate effectiveness monitoring programs at the watershed scale is an extremely difficult and ultimately controversial task. Previous efforts generally have emphasized specific activities or effects with few attempts to monitor cumulative effects in a statistically sound and defensible manner. The TFW Monitoring Program proposes to assess cumulative effects by: 1) Monitoring changes in selective input processes: Mass Wasting, Surface Erosion, Riparian LWD Recruitment, Thermal Energy and Hydrology and 2) Evaluating the response of aquatic resources to changes in input processes. This is an appropriate structure for framing the questions, although quantifying changes in input processes and responses by aquatic resources will be difficult. Specific questions and hypothesis presented in Schuett-Hames (1999) for individual inputs and responses are addressed in the text of this review.