GEOLOGY, RESTORATION AND ROADS

Declining salmonid fisheries and degradation of aquatic habitat compels land managers to actively engage in the process of watershed restoration. With limited resources, it becomes necessary to prioritize watersheds (where to go first) and activities (what to do first). The following strategy and process has been developed to accomplish these tasks. Multi-scale analysis is used to identify priority watersheds. Bedrock and geomorphic mapping provide the basis for GIS-based models that estimate episodic and chronic sediment delivery to channels from landsliding and surface erosion. These models help to assess levels of cumulative watershed risk and the condition of individual drainages. Overall prioritization is then accomplished by considering both watershed risk and aquatic habitat values (beneficial uses). A triage approach is used, where high risk - high value watersheds are the highest priority for active restoration. Low risk - high value watersheds are the highest for protection and maintenance. High risk - lower value watersheds are lower priority.

On the Klamath National Forest in northern California, road prisms comprise only 2% of the landscape area, but during the 1997 Flood, roads accounted for an estimated 40% of sediment delivered. Consequently, roads are the cornerstone and focus of this restoration strategy. The road prioritization and treatment process is comprised of the following steps: (1) field-based road inventories (channel crossing sites and other sediment sources), (2) risk/consequences/impacts assessment of inventory sites, (3) modeling that characterizes watershed risk associated with individual road segments (model uses 12 indicators from road inventory work and GIS sediment models based on geologic factors), (4) roads analysis process that recommends management options, principally closures, maintenance level, stormproofing and decommissioning, (5) project development based on roads recommended for stormproofing and decommissioning, and (6) project implementation, including funding/grant writing, planning document preparation, design, contract administration and monitoring. Restoration road work is an exercise in risk reduction, where the most serious problems are identified and treated first.