Klamath Falls Record of Decision: Water and Soils

Water and Soils

Objectives

See Aquatic Conservation Strategy, Riparian Reserve and Key Watershed objectives, and management action/direction for Riparian Reserves.

As directed by the Clean Water Act, comply with state water quality requirements to restore and maintain water quality to protect the recognized beneficial uses for the Klamath Basin. See Chapter 3 for a list of these beneficial uses.

Improve and/or maintain soil productivity.

Land Use Allocations

None specifically for water quality or soils. However, Riparian Reserves, Key Watershed provisions, and timber production capability classifications will assist in meeting water quality and soils management objectives.

Management Actions/Direction

General

Improve and/or maintain soil and water conditions by closing selected areas to off-highway vehicle use and/or limiting such use to existing or designated roads and trails. See the Recreation Section, Off-Highway Vehicles, for additional details.

Water

See management actions/direction for Riparian Reserves and Key Watersheds (located in the Aquatic Conservation Strategy section).

Comply with state water quality requirements to restore and maintain water quality necessary to protect identifiable beneficial uses as directed by the Clean Water Act, as amended.

Comply with state laws and regulations pertaining to the beneficial uses identified by the states and any applicable water quality standards that have been established, as directed by the Federal Water Quality Act of 1987. The State of Oregon has established a list of beneficial uses for the Klamath Basin (Oregon Administrative Rules 340-41-962) and water quality standards that provide protection for those uses. Continue to implement a nonpoint source management program in cooperation with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality to assure protection of water and water-dependent resources .

Design management practices to comply with Oregon's Antidegradation Policy, which describes the conditions under which water quality may be lowered and when it must be maintained or enhanced. The purposes of the Antidegradation Policy, which includes policies on high quality waters, water quality limited waters, and outstanding resources waters, is to protect, maintain, and enhance existing surface water quality to protect all existing beneficial uses.

Continue coordination with the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality for implementation of best management practices which protect beneficial uses of water. Best management practices will be selected based on site-specific conditions, feasibility, and the water quality standards for potentially affected waters (see Appendix D). Mining, timber, grazing, recreation, off-highway vehicle use, and other activities will be regulated to protect water quality and riparian-wetland areas.

Ensure consistency of management activities with the Oregon Water Management Program for forest practices and with Oregon's water quality criteria and guidelines (Oregon Administrative Rule 340-41).

Watershed analysis will provide the mechanism for consideration, incorporation and implementation of the above into land and water resource management planning.

Permit no degradation of water quality if it will interfere with or become injurious to the established beneficial uses of water within those segments of a river designated under the National Wild and Scenic Rivers Act.

Protect flood plains and wetlands in accordance with Executive Orders 11988 and 11990.

The components of the Aquatic Conservation Strategy are Riparian Reserves, Key Watersheds, Watershed Analysis, and Watershed Restoration. Please refer to these sections earlier in this Chapter for more information. These sections are supplemented by best management practices in Appendix D.

Follow a four tier approach to land and water resource management: regional, physiographic or river basin, watershed, and site specific or project level. Under this approach, analysis starts at the watershed level. The planning units will be physiographic province or river basin, consisting of a number of watersheds. Watershed based planning will be implemented and, over time, the BLM will switch from existing planning units to the provinces or modify the boundaries of current planning units to be more compatible with the watershed based approach.

Watershed analysis will provide the basis for cumulative effects analysis.

Evaluate proposed projects or management actions for their cumulative effects on water quality, runoff, and stream channel conditions. The results from the cumulative effects analysis will influence final decisions both on activity scheduling and on the application of design features and mitigation measures, including best management practices.

Refer to the Riparian Reserves section earlier in this Chapter for additional guidance. In general, guidance for Riparian Reserves supersedes guidance for riparian-wetland areas in this section and in best management practices Appendix D. In some instances, however, guidance in this section and in Appendix D is more restrictive than that stipulated in the Record of Decision for Riparian Reserves. In those instances, the more restrictive guidance will be followed.

Emphasize, in accordance with the Riparian-Wetland Initiative for the 1990s, the following in management of riparian-wetland areas: protection of riparian-wetland areas and associated uplands; rehabilitation and maintenance of riparian-wetland areas; and
partnership and cooperative rehabilitation and management of riparian-wetland areas.

Manage riparian-wetland areas to protect, maintain, or improve riparian habitat for wildlife and native plant diversity. Restore or maintain riparian-wetland areas so that 75 percent or more are in proper functioning condition by 1997. The overall objective is to achieve an advanced ecological status, except where resource management objectives, including proper functioning condition, will require an earlier successional stage, thus providing the widest variety of vegetation and habitat diversity for wildlife, fish, and watershed protection. Proper functioning condition exists when adequate vegetation, landform, or large woody debris are present to: dissipate stream energy associated with high water flows; filter sediment, capture bedload and aid floodplain development; improve flood water retention and groundwater recharge; develop stabilizing root masses; create aquatic habitat; and insulate streams from summer and winter temperature extremes.

Achieve riparian-wetland area improvement and maintenance objectives through the management of existing uses, wherever feasible.

Ensure that new resource management plans and activity plans, and revisions of existing plans incorporate, as applicable, practices that enhance or maintain properly functioning riparian systems and maintain, restore or enhance water quality, and result in water quality that meets or exceeds State water quality standards.

Prescribe management of riparian-wetland values based on site-specific characteristics and settings.

Give special attention to monitoring and evaluating management activities in riparian-wetland areas and revise management practices where site-specific objectives are not being met.

Cooperate with and encourage the involvement of interested federal, state and local governments, organizations and private parties to share information, implement management, coordinate activities, and provide education on the value, productivity and management of riparian-wetland areas.

Retain riparian-wetland areas in public ownership unless disposal would be in the public interest, as determined by land use planning.

Identify, encourage, and support research and studies needed to ensure that riparian-wetland area management objectives can be properly defined and met.

Provide environmental education materials to schools and other publics relating to riparian-wetland management.

Incorporate into the resources area's grazing management program, as appropriate, any additional requirements, goals, and objectives devised as a result of the Eastside Ecosystem Management Project and/or Healthy Rangelands record of decision.

Achieve watershed and riparian-wetland management objectives through improved livestock distribution and management through fencing, brush control, spring and other water source development, and through changes in livestock numbers and/or season of use. Maintain existing exclosures where appropriate to meet identified resource management objectives.

Continue implementation of the Gerber Riparian Demonstration Area Plan. Develop an interpretive program to showcase the intensive multiple use management systems currently being used to bring about improvements in riparian-wetland conditions.

Soils

Protect watersheds according to the Federal Land Policy and Management Act (1976) . Minimize soil erosion and rehabilitate eroded areas, as an overall goal, to maintain and enhance watershed condition and soil productivity and reduce nonpoint source pollution that could result from management and land use activities.

Locate and analyze areas prone to erosion in watershed analysis. Management opportunities identified for these areas will be evaluated to determine potential impacts. Best management practices or mitigating measures will be identified and incorporated into future proposed activities (see Appendix D for more information). Proposed activities will also be evaluated under the National Environmental Policy Act, as appropriate, for their effects on soils.

Include corrective measures, such as construction of erosion control structures, allocation of proper levels of vegetation use by livestock and wildlife, forest or other land treatments measures and control or mitigation of activities that may contribute to soil erosion and degradation of watershed condition.

Rehabilitate headcuts and gullies on watershed uplands where feasible.

Rehabilitate burned areas with critical or severe erosion hazards or other environmental concerns.

Implement treatment projects, such as juniper thinning or brush control, to improve perennial grass cover conditions or wildlife habitat.

Apply best management practices during all ground- and vegetation-disturbing activities. See Appendix D for a list of practices.

Minimize disturbance of identified fragile sites. Appendix D contains management guidance for fragile sites.

Exclude fragile nonsuitable sites from the timber production base to minimize soil erosion and the effects of land management activities on surface waters.

Incorporate, as applicable, in grazing-related plans and activities practices that maintain or achieve healthy, properly functioning uplands. Uplands function properly when vegetation and ground cover maintain soil conditions that can sustain natural biotic communities. The functioning condition of uplands results from the interaction of geology, soil, climate, water, biological activity, and landform.

Manage uplands to provide the following functions within site capabilities, consistent with Appendix D and consistent with other management direction:

The vegetation canopy allows moisture from typical storm events to reach the soil surface.
Standing vegetation captures blowing or drifting snow.
Organic material (plant litter, standing vegetation) protects the soil surface form raindrop impact.
Coarse rock fragments protect the soil surface from raindrop impact.
Water is not restricted from infiltrating the soil surface (for example, organic matter is present and no physical soil crusting, capping, or sealing of the surface is present).
Subsurface soil conditions support infiltration rates (for example, compaction layers and evident of frost heave are uncommon).
Standing vegetation and plant litter detain overland flow and trap sediment.
Surface roughness detains overland flow.
Evidence of excessive overland flow (rills and gullies, pedestalling), wind erosion or other soil movement is uncommon.
Plant cover and litter protect the soil surface from the evaporative effects of sun and wind.
Plants are vigorous and productive and consist of desirable species.