USDA Forest Service

Pacific Southwest Research Station
Home
About Us
Contact Us
Employment
Newsroom
Publications & Products
 
Pacific Southwest
Research Station
800 Buchanan Street
Albany, CA 94710-0011
(510) 883-8830
United States Department of Agriculture Forest Service. USDA logo which links to the department's national site. Forest Service logo which links to the agency's national site.
PSW Home > Lake Tahoe Science Program > Tahoe Science Projects > 010 Foltz

Improving road erosion modeling for the Lake Tahoe Basin and evaluating BMP strategies for fine sediment reduction at watershed scales

Principal Investigators:
Randy Foltz, USDA Forest Service-Rocky Mountain Research Station
Bill Elliot, USDA Forest Service-Rocky Mountain Research Station
Woodam Chung, University of Montana
Hakjun Rhee, University of Montana

Proposal [pdf]

Final Report—Improving WEPP [pdf]
Final Report—Field experiment and modeling results [pdf]

Additional Reports:
Copeland and Foltz 2009 [pdf]
Foltz et al. 2011 [pdf]

User Manual:
Forest road BMP planning decision support tool [pdf]

Please contact Bill Elliot with questions regarding the final reports.

Project Summary

This project parameterized the Watershed Erosion Prediction Project (WEPP) model, improved the WEPP: Road interface, and validated the WEPP model for the Lake Tahoe Basin. The project also developed a GIS-based quantitative approach to predict sediment loading using WEPP: Road, identified erosional “hot spots” from a watershed-scale road network, and determined the optimal road network design that minimizes sediment production through best management practice (BMP) application.