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WRC Conference

The Watersheds Research Cooperative is planning a 2008 conference highlighting the progress made on the WRC’s paired watershed studies and other research involving the management of headwater streams. Scheduled October 13-14, the conference will be held at the CH2M Hill Alumni Center on the Oregon State University campus. Additional details will be available in this Newsletter or on the WRC website.

Trask and Alsea watershed studies join the WRC

The Watersheds Research Cooperative has gained two multidisciplinary watershed studies – the Trask Paired Watershed Study and the Alsea Watershed Study Revisited. Both studies, now underway in Oregon, are examining the effects of contemporary forest practices on hydrology, water quality, fish, and other aquatic biota.

These studies join the Hinkle Creek Paired Watershed Study under the WRC umbrella, a collaboration that provides greater ecological context to address questions of contemporary forest management effectiveness. The three studies, using similar study designs and data collection methods, are geographically distributed throughout western Oregon – Alsea in the Mid-Coast Range, Trask in the North Coast Range, and Hinkle in the Cascades (Figure 1).

Click here to view an overview map of the three study areas Then, click on the image to view in full size (for those browsers that auto resize the image).

At the Trask, the research is being conducted at two spatial scales – within the immediate area of harvest treatments and at downstream locations throughout the watershed. The research is being lead by a team of scientists from several research organizations that includes the U.S. Geological Survey’s Forest and Range Ecosystem Science Center, the U.S. Forest Service’s Forest Sciences Laboratory of the Pacific Northwest Forest and Range Experiment Station, Weyerhaeuser Company and the Oregon State University’s Department of Fish and Wildlife, and Forest Engineering Department. Private, state and federal landowners and natural resource managers are participating in the planning and implementation.

For more information on the Trask study, please Click Here

The Alsea Watershed Study Revisited provides a unique opportunity to compare the environmental response of contemporary forest practices with the environmental response of the unrestricted logging that occurred in the 1960s. By looking at a record of watershed data that was collected over a 50-year period and using a control watershed that has not experienced significant human impacts since before the 20th century, the study will investigate how the impacts of forest management compare to natural disturbance and variability.

The Alsea study complements the WRC efforts at Hinkle Creek and the Trask by providing a 20-40 year record over a 50-year period and by comparing drastically different treatments on the same watershed.

For more information on The Alsea study, please Click Here.

Four Master’s degrees completed and defended

Four Master’s degrees have been awarded to students using data from the Hinkle Creek Paired Watershed Study and the Alsea Watershed Study Revisited.

Kelly Kibler, a graduate student in the College of Forestry, defended her master’s thesis for the degree of Master of Science in Forest Engineering. Titled “The Influence of Contemporary Forest Harvesting on Summer Stream Temperatures in Headwater Streams of Hinkle Creek, Oregon,” Kibler’s research assessed the effects of contemporary forest management practices on stream temperature of small non-fish-bearing headwater streams and developed new knowledge regarding the physical processes that control reach-level stream temperature patterns.

Kibler’s thesis and her defense presentation are available by clicking here

Aaron Berger, a graduate student in the Department of Fisheries and Wildlife, defended his master’s thesis for the degree of Master of Science in Fisheries Science. Titled “Patterns of Coastal Cutthroat Trout Survival in Two Headwater Stream Networks,” Berger’s research examined watershed-scale survival rates of coastal cutthroat trout from headwater streams in the Hinkle Creek Watershed.

Berger’s thesis and his defense presentation are available by clicking here

Tim Otis, a graduate student in the College of Forestry, defended his master’s thesis for the degree of Master of Science in Forest Engineering. Titled “Processes That Influence the Downstream Propagation of Heat in Streams below Clearcut Harvest Units: Hinkle Creek Paired Watershed Study,” the research examined the processes that influence the downstream propagation of temperature on small headwater streams below harvest units.

Otis’ thesis and his defense presentation will be available soon.

Cody Hale, a graduate student in the College of Forestry, defended his master’s thesis for the degree of Master of Science in Forest Engineering. Titled “A Physical and Chemical Characterization of Stream Water Draining Three Oregon Coast Range Catchments,” Cody conducted a case study at the Alsea Watershed to determine the current physical and chemical properties of water in the three study streams and whether or not they differed from historically measured values while taking into account the past management regimes.

Hale’s thesis and his defense presentation are available by clicking here

Researchers update Watershed Research Cooperative projects

Researchers from the Hinkle Creek, Trask and Alsea watershed research studies detailed 2007 results at the regular December meeting of the Watershed Research Cooperative’s Advisory Committee.

The Power Point presentations from the meeting can be viewed by clicking on the links below:

Hinkle Creek

Trask

Alsea

The first Watersheds Research Cooperative newsletter details the landmark achievement for the Hinkle Creek Paired Watershed Study, the first harvest entry into the 5,000-acre Roseburg Forest Products Company site. "

The Watersheds Research Cooperative is pleased to present this electronic newsletter. If you wish to add your name or other recipients to the e-mail list for future newsletters, please click here.