Forest Operations and Water Quality in the South

Southern forests, which rely on intensive management practices, are some of the most productive forests in the U.S.Intensive forest management utilizes forest operations, such as site preparation, fertilization, thinning, and harvesting, toincrease site productivity and reduce rotation time. These operations are essential to meet the ever-increasing demands fortimber products. Forest managers utilize forest operations as tools in an attempt to manage the nations forestlands formultiple uses while maintaining or improving resource quality. Forest operations can influence nonpoint-source (NPS)pollution by disturbing natural processes that maintain water quality. In recent years, NPS pollution has been identified asthe nations largest source of water quality problems. Forest management activities have been identified as activities thatinfluence NPS pollution in the South. Results of watershed-scale studies that investigated the effect of forest operations onwater quality in the 13 southern states are highly variable. However, taken collectively, the results indicate that forestoperations have little impact on the quality of water draining from forests in the South. Based on this review, best managementpractices (BMPs) show the potential to protect water quality following forest operations; however, accurate assessments ofthe overall effectiveness of BMPs are not possible because the benefits of BMPs on different scales are relatively unknown.