Umatilla National Forest

Hydrology

GENERAL PROGRAM INFORMATION

A watershed is the area of land that collects rainfall and snowmelt which later flows into a stream. Because water from the Blue Mountains is important for so many uses, the Umatilla National Forest strongly emphasizes proper management of these watersheds. The goal of the watershed management program are:

• to maintain streams that are cold, clean, and free of excessive sediments and human-caused pollution
• to keep streambanks, channels, wetlands, and adjacent floodplains healthy
• to restore damaged lands to their previous, productive condition
• to maintain near-natural amounts of runoff water

The Umatilla National Forest Plan includes important direction for achieving these goals. The Plan envisions a basic three-point program for managing Forest watersheds:

1. Inventory Basic Watershed Resources
Proper management of Forest watersheds requires a good understanding of its basic components - soil, water, climate, and vegetation. The Umatilla National Forest upgrades its resource information base by conducting the following inventories and surveys:

• soil
• water
• fishery resources
• potential watershed improvement projects
• riparian zones (areas adjacent to streams and lakes)

These watershed surveys provide vital information for improving the management of surface water resources.

2. Apply "Best Management Practices"
National Forests are not "idle lands." They provide us with a variety of forest products and recreational opportunities. However, unless carefully managed, some activities such as livestock grazing, timber harvesting, mining, and recreation can affect the watershed's ability to produce the quality and quantity of water needed.

The Umatilla National Forest has developed "Best Management Practices": policies, standards, and methods of operation designed to reduce harmful effects on water while still allowing use of other resources. Maintaining stream surface shading to prevent fish-bearing waters from overheating during the summer is an example of general practices applied throughout the Forest. Others are developed specifically for a particular activity.

Forest managers work together in the project planning stages to identify the nature and risk of potential hazards to water resources. As a result, projects can be modified to avoid problem areas and reduce water resource damage.

The Forest's watershed management program emphasizes the prevention of problems before they occur. However, it is sometimes necessary to treat watershed problems resulting from past practices. Such treatments might include: restoring wet meadows, recontouring gullied lands, or stabilizing eroding streamanks.

Recently, the Forest began a program to control and treat the acidic wastewater draining into a forest stream where salmon and steelhead spawn. These wastes, produced by abandoned gold mines, are now treated in man-made bogs, where toxic metals and other harmful substances are filtered out. Initial results have shown a dramatic recovery in water quality.

3. Monitor and Analyze Results
The Umatilla National Forest developed an extensive water-monitoring program. It measures success in achieving the goal of maintaining healthy and abundant water resources. Monitoring stations are strategically placed at Forest management projects to measure:

• stream flow
• water temperature
• suspended sediment and turbidity
• shape and condition of stream channels and riparian areas
• precipitation, snow pack and other climatic factors
• the soil's ability to infiltrate and hold precipitation
• physical, chemical and biological components of water quality

These measurements provide a better understanding of how management activities affect water resources and whether our efforts are effective in maintaining high water quality.

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PROJECTS:

• Monitoring Watershed and Salvage Logging Effects on the 2005 School Fire, Umatilla National Forest, Southeast Washington
• Evaluating the effectiveness of floodplain restoration on the
  North Fork John Day River in Northeast Oregon
• Assessing soil and vegetation recovery following the 2005 School Fire
• JFSP - Evaluating the effects of prescribed fire and fuels treatment on water quality and aquatic habitat
• Aquatic Restoration Report
• Stream Geomorphic Classification Riparian
  Area Delineation and Riparian Cover Mapping Poster  (pdf)
• 2002 "Hobo Festival" (pdf)
• BMP Monitoring Poster 

REPORTS:

• FY 2008 Umatilla NF Water Temperature Summary (pdf)
• Umatilla Barometer Watershed Program (pdf)
• Flooding, land use, and watershed response in
  the Blue Mountains of northeastern Oregon and southeastern Washington (pdf)
• Upper Umatilla River Sediment Analysis (pdf)
• Watershed Map showing HUC numbers (use zoom to view)
• Climate Change and Water Brochure

CONTACTS:

SUPERVISOR OFFICE

POMEROY AND WALLA WALLA RANGER DISTRICTS

HEPPNER AND NORTH FORK JOHN DAY RANGER DISTRICTS:

Umatilla National Forest
2517 S.W. Hailey Avenue
Pendleton, OR 97801

541-278-3716