Water and Soil

Objectives

See Aquatic Conservation Strategy objectives.

As directed by the Clean Water Act, comply with State water quality requirements to restore and maintain water quality necessary to protect designated beneficial uses for the Rogue, Umpqua, and Klamath basins.

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.

Nonsuitable woodlands, which include all landslide prone areas and other unstable soils, are identified as not suitable for timber harvest. Other surface-disturbing activities will be prohibited unless adequately mitigated to maintain site productivity and protect water quality.

Management Actions/Direction

Management Actions/Direction - Late-Successional Reserves

Consider watershed restoration projects if they provide late-successional habitat benefits or if their effect on late-successional associated species is neutral or beneficial. Design and implement watershed restoration projects in a manner that is consistent with late-successional reserve 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 Recreation and Off-highway Vehicles for additional details.

Management Actions/Direction - Water

See Management Actions/Direction for Riparian Reserves, Key Watersheds, and Watershed Restoration (located in Aquatic Conservation Strategy section).

Continue to implement a nonpoint source management program in cooperation with the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality.

Ensure consistency of management activities with Oregon's Statewide Water Quality Management Plan for forest practices and with Oregon's water quality criteria and guidelines (Oregon Administrative Rule 340-41). This includes consistency with Oregon's program for water quality limited streams in the planning area, which are Bear Creek and its tributaries, Little Butte Creek, and Evans Creek.

Continue coordination with the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality for implementation of best management practices that protect beneficial uses of water (see Best Management Practices, Appendix D).

Protect floodplains and wetlands in accordance with Executive Orders 11988 and 11990 and BLM's Riparian-Wetlands Initiative for the 1990s (USDI, BLM 1991a).

Cooperate with Federal, State, local, and Tribal agencies and private landowners to develop watershed-based coordinated resource management plans or other cooperative agreements to meet Aquatic Conservation Strategy and riparian reserve objectives.

Prepare watershed plans in conjunction with and for the following community water systems where BLM administers a significant portion of land within the watershed:

city of Butte Falls,

city of Glendale (section of Mill Creek),

city of Talent (Wagner Creek), and

city of Yreka.

Use watershed analysis to identify water quality concerns, watershed restoration opportunities, and water monitoring strategies.

Design and implement watershed restoration projects that promote long-term ecological integrity of ecosystems, conserve the genetic integrity of native species, and attain Aquatic Conservation Strategy and riparian reserve objectives (see Aquatic Conservation Strategy and Riparian Reserve sections for additional guidance).

Manage uplands to minimize nonpoint source pollution and moderate extremes in streamflow by maintaining or improving hydrologic functions (e.g., infiltration, instream flow, groundwater quantity, etc.).

Prevent watershed degradation rather than using mitigation or planned restoration to correct foreseeable problems caused by management activities (see Best Management Practices, Appendix D for additional guidance).

Defer the following areas (approximately 49,636 acres) identified as having high watershed cumulative effects from management activities, including timber harvest and other surface-disturbing activities for ten years, starting from January 1993. Management activities of a limited nature (e.g., riparian, fish or wildlife enhancement, salvage, etc.) could be permitted in these areas if the effects will not increase the cumulative effects. Watershed analysis plans will be prepared if rehabilitation is deemed appropriate. The following areas will be reevaluated during the next planning cycle or by January 2003. (See Map 5)

Designate four areas covering approximately 4,000 acres as watershed monitoring areas and defer them from timber harvest and other management activities over the planning period. Tentative watershed selections are East Fork Bobby Creek, Upper Star Gulch, Upper Morine Creek, and Pipe Fork. These watersheds, when paired with like watersheds where management activities will occur, will provide baseline information of the effects of management activities on water quality and quantity.

Identify instream flows needed to maintain riparian resources, channel conditions, aquatic habitat, and water quality. Attempt to acquire or encourage the State of Oregon to acquire instream flow water rights.

Apply for water rights to support the needs for fire suppression, construction/maintenance (e.g., pump chances, water holes, and reservoirs), grazing, recreation and other programs.

Locate water drafting sites to minimize adverse effects on stream channel stability, sedimentation, and in-stream flows needed to maintain riparian resources, channel conditions, and fish habitat.

If herbicides, insecticides, and other chemicals are applied, do so in a manner that avoids impacts that retard or prevent attainment of Aquatic Conservation Strategy and riparian reserve objectives.

Use land acquisition, exchange, and conservation easements to meet Aquatic Conservation Strategy and riparian reserve objectives.

Management Actions/Direction - Soil

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

Utilize silvicultural systems that are capable of maintaining or improving long-term soil productivity.

Design logging systems to avoid or minimize adverse impacts to soils.

Provide a renewable supply of large down logs well distributed across the Matrix lands in a manner that meets the needs of species and provides for ecological functions. Down logs will reflect the species mix of the original stand. Models will be developed for groups of plant associations and stand types that can be used as a baseline for developing prescriptions.

Leave a minimum of 120 linear feet of logs per acre greater than or equal to 16 inches in diameter and 16 feet long. Decay class 1 and 2 logs will be credited toward the total. Where this management actions/direction cannot be met with existing coarse woody debris, merchantable material will be used to make up the deficit.
In areas of partial harvest, apply the same basic management actions/direction, but they can be modified to reflect the timing of stand development cycles.
Retain coarse woody debris already on the ground and protect it to the greatest extent possible from disturbance during treatment (e.g., slash burning and yarding).
Use watershed analysis to determine appropriate amounts of coarse woody debris for site-specific conditions.

Manage lands dominated by fragile granitic and schist soils consistent with southern general forest management area guidelines. In addition, limit surface-disturbing activities on all lands dominated by fragile granitic, schist, and pyroclastic soils (approximately 85,300 acres) to maintain site productivity, reduce soil erosion, and minimize water quality degradation. These soils are scattered throughout the planning area, however, the largest concentrations of soils formed from decomposed schist and/or granite parent material occurs in Evans, Snow, Sugar, and Meadow Creeks, upper portions of Williams Creek, and headwaters of Birdseye Creek. Soils formed in deeply weathered pyroclastic parent materials are predominantly in the foothills of the Cascades. (See Map 6 and Appendix D for fragile soils mitigation measures.)

While the goal of maintaining long-term soil productivity is inherent in all management practices, it is recognized that some minor losses in productivity could result due to surface disturbances (soil compaction, road construction, etc.) caused by management activities. Implementing best management practices and minimizing disturbance of fragile areas will keep losses to a minimum (see Appendix D).