New research results - How effective are best management practices for sediment control?

A literature review examined how effective best management practices are for the control of sediment in forestry areas.

The research was titled “The Effectiveness of Forestry Best Management Practices for Sediment Control in the Southeastern United States: A Literature Review”, and was published in the Southern Journal of Applied Forestry 35(4) 2011. The author’s were Christopher Anderson and Graeme Lockaby. Water quality in managed and unmanaged forestry areas has been shown to be better than most other “human-dominated” land uses. The risk for water quality degradation in forestry areas is when trees are young, and when timber is harvested and transported. The use of best management practices have shown that this risk can be reduced.

Best management practices reduce the amount of sediment entering streams. However, it was not clear how much sediment the various best management practices actually retained. This paper examined the scientific literature available to determine how effective the various best management practices were. The results showed that very few studies have quantified best management practice effectiveness. The studies where results were obtained are summarised in the article. Best management practices that showed positive results included different site preparation intensities, artificial drainage, roadside berms, road gravelling, the use of special management zones with harvesting, and road surface conditions.

Please access the journal article for a more complete account of the article.
Source: http://saf.publisher.ingentaconnect.com/content/saf/sjaf/2011/00000035/00000004/art00003