Assessments of Best Management Practices 



By Don Potts^ 



This report discusses a forest practice moni- 

 toring tool which involves on-site assessments 

 of Best Management Practices (BMPs).The 

 BMP assessment was intended to measure the 

 level of application and practice effectiveness 

 in preventing soil erosion and protecting water 

 quality in the Flathead Basin. 



The BMP assessment had two objectives: 

 (1) The results would document the level of 

 application and the skill in implementing the 

 State's voluntary Best Management 

 Practices.This included an examination of their 

 effectiveness in controlling nonpoint source 

 pollution, and (2) A comparison would be made 

 between these results and those of the 1988 

 Montana Legislature's Environmental Quality 

 Council (EQC) statewide BMP assessment. 



This report includes a thorough examina- 

 tion of the methodology of BMP assessment.The 

 various aspects of setting up the study and 

 conducting the field work are discussed.This 

 information summarizes to document proce- 

 dures and sheds light on possible alternatives 

 and suggestions for future studies. 



In order to provide a basis for comparison 

 with the work of the EQC, similar site selection 

 criteria were utilized in this study.A stratified 

 random sample of 52 timber sales were selected 

 from four land ownership groups: Flathead 

 National Forest — 22 sales; Plum Creek Tim- 

 ber Company — 19 sales; Montana Department 

 of State Lands — six sales; and Non-Industrial 

 Private — five sales. All timber sales were 

 harvested between January 1986 andDecember 

 1988.Each sale was evaluated on up to 39 

 separate practices.These practices corresponded 



to the Best Management Practices for Forestry 

 (December 1988 revision) developed by the 

 Environmental Quality Council's BMP Tech- 

 nical Committee. Ratings were carried out by 

 three teams, each composed of five members 

 representing industry, state and federal agen- 

 cies, and environmental groups.Each team mem- 

 ber had technical expertise in some aspect of 

 forest or watershed management. 



The Flathead Basin timber sale audits re- 

 vealed that 90 percent of all management prac- 

 tices were adequately applied; 7 percent of the 

 practices were rated "minor" departures; and 3 

 percent were rated as "major" departures. Gen- 

 erally there was a close correlation between the 

 failure to adequately apply a BMP and the 

 resulting impact which was observed.Major 

 BMP departures produced major resource im- 

 pacts. 



In eight of the 52 sales (15 percent), audit 

 teams identified at least one practice as having 

 "major detrimental impacts on soil and water 

 resources." Impacts were considered "exten- 

 sive and long term" in two of these sales.The 

 "major" impacts observed on the other six sales 

 were considered to impart short term effects. 



In 31 of the 52 sales (59 percent), audit 

 teams identified at least one practice as having 

 "minor detrimental impacts on soil and water 

 resources." Minor impacts were all considered 

 to be of short duration. Figures F-1 and F-2 

 show the distribution of major and minor im- 



'Dr. Don Potts is a Professor with University of 

 Montana's School of Forestry in Missoula, Mon- 

 tana. 



Flathead Basin Cooperative Program Final Report 



Page 83 



