Pacific Southwest

Title: Logging effects on streamflow: water yields and summer flows at Caspar Creek in northwestern California

Author: Keppeler, Elizabeth T.; Ziemer, Robert R.

Date: 1990

Source: Water Resources Research 26(7): 1669-1679.

Description: Streamflow data for a 21-year period were analyzed to determine the effects of selective tractor harvesting of second-growth Douglas fir and redwood forest on the volume, timing, and duration of low flows and annual water yield in northwestern California. The flow response to logging was highly variable. Some of this variability was correlated with antecedent precipitation conditions. Statistically significant increases in streamflow were detected for both the annual period and the low-flow season. Relative increases in water yield were greater for the summer low-flow period than for annual flows, but these summer flow increases generally disappeared within 5 years.

Keywords: PSW4351, Caspar Creek, streamflow, water yields, timber harvesting, hydrograph lag time, sediment

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Citation

Keppeler, Elizabeth T.; Ziemer, Robert R.  1990.  Logging effects on streamflow: water yields and summer flows at Caspar Creek in northwestern California.   Water Resources Research 26(7): 1669-1679..