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Fire suppression in the last century has resulted in forests with excessive amounts of biomass, leading to more severe wildfires, covering greater areas, requiring more resources for suppression and mitigation, and causing increased onsite and offsite damage to forests and watersheds. Forest managers are now attempting to reduce this accumulated biomass by thinning, prescribed fire, and other management activities. These activities will impact watershed health, particularly as larger areas are treated and treatment activities become more widespread in space and in time. Management needs, laws, social pressures, and legal findings have underscored a need to synthesize what we know about the cumulative watershed effects of fuel management activities. In this 2010 synthesis by the Rocky Mountain Research Station, 14 chapters were defined covering fire and forests, machinery, erosion processes, water yield and quality, soil and riparian impacts, aquatic and landscape effects, and predictive tools and procedures. These chapters provide an overview of our current understanding of the cumulative watershed effects of fuel management in the western United States.

Starting late this fall, Earth Works Institute will ramp up its watershed planning and restoration activities in the Lower Embudo Valley when it launches a 3-year program to update a watershed plan for the Rio Embudo.

Forest Stewards Guild flyer. Handout at April 21, 2017 Coordinating Group meeting.

This regional assessment examines the impacts of temperature change from 1951-2006 on natural resources in Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, and Utah. It documents that warming has already affected habitats, watersheds, and species in the Southwest, by influencing the timing of seasonal events or amplifying the impacts of natural disturbances such as wildfire and drought. The report concludes that to begin adapting to climate change, natural resource managers should reevaluate the effectiveness of current restoration tools, modify resource objectives, learn from climate-smart adaptive management and monitoring, and share information across boundaries.

Supplement to January 2011 publication by The Nature Conservancy: Managing Changing Landscapes in the Southwestern United States

An online collection of resources from the Center for Watershed Protection and the US Forest Service Northeastern Area. Provides useful tools and training materials about managing urban forests for watershed health. Links to topical collections including: Forest Planning And Assessment, Reducing Stormwater Runoff, Forest-Friendly Development, and Planting and Maintaining Trees

Environmental Conditions of the Animas and San Juan Watersheds: Past, Present and Future. NM Water Resources Research Institute.

Article published in Science Codex on June 15, 2012

Presentation to the Forest and Watershed Health Coordinating Group/Drought Task Force Watershed Management Subcommittee, April 15, 2016

PDF Version of a presentation made to the Forest and Watershed Health Coordinating Group/Drought Task Force Watershed Management Subcommittee, April 15, 2016