Instrumentation for monitoring timber harvest effects

General public perception that forest harvesting adversely impacts stream water quality and increases erosion is under investigation by the Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC). Determining these impacts will aid the MDC in testing the effectiveness of their current best management timber harvest practices (BMPs).; Instrumentation to quantitatively determine the changes in erosion and water quality resulting from timber harvesting was developed for installation on fifteen sites in Missouri State Conservation Areas in the Missouri Ozarks.; Sediment traps were designed by modifying a prior design utilized by Dr. Carl Settergren. These traps were placed on different landscape micro features to capture sediment from sideslope plots and to determine which areas are more prone to erosion or deposition. Rising-stage water samplers were designed to collect water samples from ephemeral streams. Extensive knowledge of the research sites was developed through many field visits. Each site was unique and instrumentation plans had to be adopted to site conditions to optimize sample collection. Analyses of these samples will determine the nutrient and total suspended solids concentrations in each sample.; Pre-harvest data will be collected for 1.5-3 years and post-harvest data will be collected for another 2-4 years. MDC will utilize this data to determine BMP effectiveness and make modifications if necessary.