Monitoring Guidelines to Evaluate Effects of Forestry Activities on Streams in the Pacific Northwest and Alaska

Abstract

This document provides guidance for designing water quality monitoring projects and selecting monitoring parameters. Although the focus is on forest management and streams in the Pacific Northwest and Alaska, a broader perspective is taken, and much of the information is more widely applicable. Part I reviews the regulatory mechanisms for nonpoint source pollution and defines seven types of monitoring. A step-by-step process for developing monitoring projects is presented. Because monitoring is a sampling procedure, study design and statistical analysis are explicitly addressed. Part II is a technical review of the parameters, which are grouped into six categories: physical and chemical constituents, flow, sediment, channel characteristics, riparian, and aquatic organisms.