Watershed Scale Management of Sediments in the Upper Elk River
Download

Thank you for downloading Watershed Scale Management of Sediments in the Upper Elk River

If your download does not start automatically after a few seconds, please click on the Download link above

Description:

The upper Elk River is considered to be one of the premier cold-water fisheries in the East. The surrounding watershed is 95% forested, and contains some of the highest quality hardwoods in the United States. The watershed also supports a growing recreational base, with a popular ski resort and associated vacation homes at its headwaters. Timber harvest and development pressures are therefore especially high in the watershed. These disturbances create non-point sources of sediments, and current total suspended solid (TSS) concentrations may be threatening the quality of the native brook trout populations in the Elk River watershed (Sanders 2004).

A watershed scale approach is needed to identify and manage these non-point sediment sources. Implementation of a watershed-wide turbidity monitoring program to identify spatial and temporal changes in TSS is the first step towards managing these non-point sources of sediment. Once spatial and temporal variation in TSS has been quantified, a watershed scale assessment of sediment risk factors can be used to identify areas that may be vulnerable to TSS problems.

The specific objectives of this study were to 1.) Build on previous TSS data from the watershed to establish a long-term monitoring program capable of identifying critical sources of suspended sediment loads and 2.) Use GIS to identify landscape attributes associated with elevated TSS, and identify areas that may be susceptible to TSS problems in the future.

File Size:

1.0 MB

Downloads:

20

File Author:

J.T. Petty, J.B. Fulton, S. Grushecky, K.J. Hartman, D. McGill

Submitted On:

13 Jan 2006