Management Guidelines for Riparian Forests 



of the current Best Management Practices (Mon- 

 tana Environmental Quality Council 1989). 



Variability of field conditions will still re- 

 quire professional judgement in delineating the 

 SMZ. Wetlands often occur as pockets or string- 

 ers reflecting microsites in bottomlands. Wet- 

 lands may also extend up adjacent slopes re- 

 flecting unstable conditions. Microtopography 

 also changes within management units. The 

 decision tree process allows for varying the 

 SMZ within the unit to provide stream protec- 

 tion. This needs to be balanced with other 

 management considerations as long as the mini- 

 mums at any one point along the stream are not 

 violated. 



The user should remember that the above 

 criteria are to meet minimum standards and that 

 the current BMPs allow considerable flexibility 

 in management practices within the Streamside 

 Management Zones. In order to ensure protect- 

 ing water quality, the Audit Teams and the 

 Management Guidelines Working Group made 

 several suggestions that should be considered 

 in any specific operation: 



(1) If the existing stand has little woody 

 debris and little undergrowth vegeta- 

 tion to trap and filter sediments, the 

 SMZ should be expanded appropri- 

 ately to provide an effective filter or 

 use other mitigating measures. 



(2) Large trees in or near wetlands are 

 especially susceptible to windthrow. 

 Potential windthrow should be antici- 

 pated and planned for to minimize soil 

 disturbance and bank damage caused 

 by uprooted trees. This may mean re- 

 moval of some high risk streambank 

 trees and/or minimizing edge effects of 

 certain harvesting practices. 



(3) Trees should be marked and reserved 

 along those stream segments where 

 woody debris recruitment is needed for 



stream protection. The selection of re- 

 serve trees must be integrated with 

 stream type, existing woody debris, 

 desired woody debris, windthrow risk, 

 silvicultural prescription, harvesting 

 practice, and projected stand develop- 

 ment. 



(4) A sediment filter buffer may be needed 

 adjacent to certain wetlands where 

 routed sediments from roads or skid 

 trails have a potential of being depos- 

 ited in the adjacent wetlands. 



(5) Headwater basin sites may have a pat- 

 tern of many small streams where it is 

 difficult to define SMZs for. each tiny 

 intermittent stream. However, these 

 sites are critical in terms of watershed 

 management. In many situations, it may 

 be most practical to simply treat entire 

 cutting units as a Streamside Manage- 

 ment Zone. 



One of the first steps to ensure protection of 

 water quality is to recognize and delineate the 

 SMZ and make sure every person involved in a 

 forestry operation knows where the boundaries 

 are. The next step is to make sure the SMZ is not 

 violated inadvertently during logging, slash dis- 

 posal, or site preparation. It does little good to 

 develop a sound prescription and conduct care- 

 ful logging if the operator piling slash or the 

 people conducting prescribed burning do not 

 use the same care. 



Estimating soil erodibility potential has been 

 done in different ways and the Management 

 Guidelines Working Group considered alterna- 

 tives such as soil texture. Current studies are 

 underway to obtain better estimators, but are 

 not yet available for routine application. Until 

 better estimates are available, we decided to 

 stay with the original estimators. When better 

 estimates become available (or local expertise 

 is well documented) they can simply be substi- 



Flathead Basin Cooperative Program Final Report 



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