Toward Improved Water Quality in Forestry: Opportunities and Challenges in a Changing Regulatory Environment

E nvironmental resource managers have long recognized the importance of protecting water quality to safeguard human health and ecological resources. In North America, the Soil Conservation District movement, initiated in 1935 with passage of the Soil Conservation Act, represents early interest in this goal (Ice 2004). The 1948 Federal Water Pollution Control Act (Ch. 758; P.L. 845) and subsequent amendments (e.g., the 1972 Federal Water Pollution Control Act or “Clean Water Act” [CWA] and amendments) authorized other federal, state, and local entities to prepare programs that would reduce pollution of interstate waters and tributaries and improve the condition of surface and underground waters. The CWA makes a distinction between point and nonpoint sources. “The term point source means any discernible, confined and discrete conveyance, including but not limited to any pipe, ditch, channel, tunnel, conduit, well, discrete fissure, container, rolling stock, concentrated animal feeding operation, or vessel or other floating craft, from which pollutants are or may be discharged. This term does not include agricultural stormwater discharges and return flows from irrigated agriculture” (33 USC § 1362). Point sources are subject to regulation and control through permit requirements of the National Pollution Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) (33 USC § 1342). “Nonpoint sources” (NPS) of water pollution are those that do not meet the definition of a point source. The US Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) NPS web page states that NPS pollution “comes from many diffuse sources” and “generally results from land runoff, precipitation, atmospheric deposition, drainage, seepage or hydrologic modification.” The CWA directs the states to establish NPS pollution management programs and, with technical assistance from the EPA, to develop and implement best management practices (BMPs) for reducing pollutant loadings from NPS (33 USC § 1329). The EPA has defined most forestry activities as NPS [40 CFR § 122.27(b)(1)], and all states with significant levels of forest management activities have developed and implemented forestry NPS control programs (National Council for Air, and Stream Improvement, Inc. [NCASI] 2009). BMPs are a primary approach in these programs and have been defined in this context as “a practice or usually a combination of practices that are determined by a state or a designated planning agency to be the most effective and practicable means (including technological, economical, and institutional considerations) of controlling point and nonpoint source pollutants at levels compatible with environmental quality goals—note BMPs were conceptualized in the 1972 US Federal Water Pollution Control Act” (Society of American Foresters 2010) Examples of forestry BMPs include establishing of streamside management zones, planning of road systems and harvest operations to minimize the number of stream crossings, managing surface runoff from road systems by directing it away from streams, and developing handling and application procedures for fertilizers and pesticides that prevent spills and direct application into waterbodies. State BMP programs have been very successful in controlling the impacts of forestry operations on water quality (Archey 2004, Ice et al. 2004a). A large and growing body of research shows that forestry BMPs reduce water quality impacts by 80–90% compared with impacts from historic practices (Ice 2004, McBroom et al. 2008, NCASI 2012, Sugden et al. 2012) and provide substantial protection to maintain water quality and aquatic habitat (Williams et al. 2000, Vowell and Frydenborg 2004, Wilkerson et al. 2010). For example, vegetation retained in streamside management zones (SMZs) takes up nutrients (immobilization) in subsurface runoff and impedes movement of surface runoff, thus enhancing deposition of sediments (and associated nutrients and organic matter) within the SMZs (Walbridge 1993). SMZs have the ability to store and transform soluble inorganic nutrient forms through adsorption of phosphorus (P) and denitrification of nitrogen (N) (Walbridge and Lockaby 1994). Nationwide, it is estimated that forestry BMPs are applied nearly 90% of the time (Ice et al. 2010). Although the use of BMPs is in some sense voluntary, participation in certification programs is contingent on applying BMPs, and in many locations, they are incorporated into state regulations, as is evident from the high implementation rates nationwide. Improvement in forestry NPS control programs is attributable to the ongoing efforts of diverse parties including the EPA, state forestry and environmental agencies, forest owners and operators, wood procurement organizations, research organizations, and environmental groups. In recent years, forest certification programs have placed additional emphasis on compliance with state BMPs and other water quality regulations (Simpson et al. 2008). An important indicator of success is the fact that forestry is no longer identified by the EPA as among the 10 leading sources of water quality impairment in the United States (US EPA 2011). In most states, the impacts of forestry on water resources are