Pacific Southwest

Title: "Problems in determining the return of a watershed to pretreatment conditions: techniques applied to a study at Caspar Creek, California"

Author: "Thomas, Robert B."

Date: 1990

Source: Water Resources Research 26(9): 2079-2087.

Description: "Using a previously treated basin as a control in subsequent paired watershed studies requires the control to be stable. Basin stability can be assessed in many ways, some of which are investigated for the South Fork of Caspar Creek in northern California. This basin is recovering from logging and road building in the early 1970s. Three storm-based discharge characteristics (peak discharge, quick flow, and total storm flow), daily flows, and concentration of suspended sediment were studied to see if the South Fork can be used as a control in a second experiment. Mean sediment concentration in three discharge classes and regression parameters for the other data were tested to estimate remaining treatments effects relative to the North Fork. Patterns of change were similar for most data, with rises in response followed by returns toward pretreatment conditions. The storm and sediment data showed few significant differences, but tests on daily flows indicated that differences still exist. The overall evidence suggests that the South Fork has returned to near pretreatment conditions. Better sediment data are needed for studies of the effects of land management."

Keywords: "PSW4351, Caspar Creek, watershed, sediment, logging effects, road building, storm flow"

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Citation

"Thomas, Robert B."  1990.  "Problems in determining the return of a watershed to pretreatment conditions: techniques applied to a study at Caspar Creek, California".   Water Resources Research 26(9): 2079-2087..