The Watershed Research & Training Center - Big Creek Watershed Management Collaborative

Big Creek Watershed Management Collaborative

Big Creek Watershed Management: Collaborative Plan for Hayfork’s Municipal Water Source is a comprehensive watershed management plan for Hayfork's municipal water supply. In 2006, the WRTC was able to secure funding through State Water Resources Control Board’s Proposition 40 Integrated Watershed Management Program (IWMP) to conduct a comprehensive watershed assessment and planning project for Big Creek. The plan will define goals and objectives, outline strategies, and prescribe activities to restore and protect water quality and beneficial uses for both the short and long term. A collaborative approach will be employed to draw on multi-disciplinary expertise and incorporate a diverse range of interests representing both the public and private lands, with the goal of drafting and adopting a widely supported plan for this critical watershed.

View - Project Area Map

Three of the major project goals are to engage landowners and stakeholders in the planning process,develop a watershed management collaborative to participate in the planning, and form a workgroup to steer the process and implement plan development. Although our project will not immediately (during the 20 month grant duration) affect the ecological processes and environmental resources within the watershed boundaries, the potential for on-the-ground implementation of the planned watershed management projects will have a considerable influence on both.

Currently, we are conducting stream monitoring along Big Creek measuring temperature, turbidity, and flow; creating a webpage for stakeholders and interested parties to track the progress or the project, as well as a depository for data collected during the life of the project; and contacting potential stakeholders and agency representatives to inform them of the details of the project. We are planning the first collaborative meeting in April 2007 to discuss in greater depth the details of the project and to initiate the Big Creek Watershed Management Collaborative and workgroup.

GIS is an integral component of this project as it allows us to map and quantify existing resource conditions in the watershed including: fuels, roads, streams, wildlife habitat, and geology. The results of our resource inventory work and subsequent GIS analysis will be drafted in our Watershed Assessment Report that will act as a guide in making informed decisions with local stakeholders about short-term and long-term plans to improve water quality and beneficial uses in Big Creek. The recommendations that come out of these collaborative discussions will be included in the final draft of the Big Creek Watershed Management Plan.

View - Big Creek Watershed Assessment Report (July 2008)

Watershed Resource Inventory

To assess the current resource conditions in Big Creek and evaluate their long-term impact on water quality and beneficial uses in the basin, a multi-step approach was employed:

1) Collected existing GIS data for the basin;

2) Determined where there were data gaps or altogether missing data;

3) Conducted on-going stream monitoring of temperature, flow, turbidity and suspended sediment along 9 strategically located monitoring sites throughout watershed;

4) Formulated a inventory strategy using existing USFS inventory protocol;

5) Conducted Watershed Resource Inventory (WRI) of core resource conditions;

6) Performed periodic quality assurance and quality control checks on data collection;

7) Generated GIS layers and resource inventory database;

8) Analyzed newly acquired data and preexisting data using GIS and other spatial modeling software;

9) Drew conclusions from analysis and document them in the Watershed Assessment Report (WAR).

Data Compatibility

One of the main objectives was to establish data compatibility between existing USFS data sets and data acquired during the WRI. Where applicable, current USFS inventory protocol was used for data collection to help streamline the pre-NEPA data collection process necessary for project implementation on federal land. The Operating Agreement between the USFS and WRTC for the Big Creek Watershed Management Project specifies that all Stream Condition Inventory (SCI) and Road Assessment Protocol (RAP) were to be conducted using USFS designed data collection methods. Prior to project implementation the USFS will be required only to validate that the data is still current and accurate to satisfy pre-NEPA requirements and begin implementation of restoration projects specified in the Big Creek Watershed Management Plan.

2007 Data

Stream Condition Inventory

The purpose of the Pacific Southwest Region Stream Condition Inventory (SCI) is to collect intensive and repeatable data from stream reaches to document existing stream conditions and make reliable comparisons over time within or between stream reaches. SCI is therefore an inventory and monitoring program. It is designed to assess effectiveness of management actions on streams in managed watersheds (non-reference streams), as well as to document stream conditions over time in watersheds with little or no past management or that have recovered from historic management effects (reference streams). The main objective of SCI are to: (1) Inventory stream reaches using standard, measurable protocols to collect consistent region wide existing stream condition data, and (2) Monitor stream reaches over time to compare conditions within or between reaches at a reasonable level of statistical confidence (generally the detection of a 20% change with an 80% confidence level; USDA 2005).