# Presentation: 866946

## A WATERSHED-SCALE ECO-HYDROLOGIC STUDY ON TURKEY CREEK WATERSHED, FRANCIS- MARION NATIONAL FOREST, COASTAL SOUTH CAROLINA

- D.M. Amatya
- Project Collaborators’ 2nd Meeting
- August 04, 2005

**A WATERSHED-SCALE ECO-HYDROLOGIC STUDY ON TURKEY CREEK WATERSHED, FRANCIS- MARION NATIONAL FOREST, COASTAL SOUTH CAROLINA**

## FOREST SERVICE GOALS (2004-08) & CENTER’S MISSION

- Monitor Water Quality Impacts of Activities on National Forest Lands.
- Use collaborative stewardship and partnerships with community stakeholders to identify watersheds at risk of diminished water quality due to fire and other threats and to plan and implement mitigation or prevention measures.
***Managing forested wetland landscapes for water quality improvement and productivity requires a detailed understanding of functional linkages between ecohydrological processes and management practices***

## HYDROLOGY & WQ ISSUES

**HYDROLOGY & WQ ISSUES**

- High water table and Flooding
- Droughts and Low flows
- Fresh water drainage to adjacent estuaries
- Forest management (Harvesting, Thinning, Burning, Planting/Regeneration) impacts
- Land use  and climate change impacts
- Growing urban sprawl impacts
- Natural disturbance (Fire, Hurricanes) impacts

## Santee Experimental Forest (Estd. 1938) 

- Francis-Marion National Forest

- Coastal SC

- Santee Exp Forest (2470 ha)

- Charleston
- County

- Dorchestor
- County

- Berkeley
- County

- Charleston

**Cooper River**

## SANTEE EXPERIMENTALWATERSHEDS DEVELOPMENT

***WS 77 (160 ha): 1******st****** Order, Pine/Hardwood – 1963***
***WS 78 (5,000 ha): 3******rd****** Order, Mixed land use- 1964***
***WS 79 (500 ha): 2******nd****** Order, Mixed land use- 1965***
***WS 80 (206 ha): 1******st****** Order, Pine/Hardwood, 1968***
***Poorly drained, low gradient***
***Hydrologic budget, ET***
***Prescribed burning effects***
***Discontinued by 1984***
***(8 to 13 years of data)***

- Weather Station

**77**

**78**

**SEF**

**80**

**79**

## Re-Monitoring after Hugo in 1989

**WS 79**

- Fox Gulley Creek

**Turkey Creek**

- 205 ha –
- Control

- 155 ha - Treatment

**Re-Monitoring after Hugo in 1989**

- Rainfall
- Weather
- Stream flow
- Water quality
- Water table

**Vegetation badly damaged/destroyed**
**WS 80 – Non-salvage harvest**
**WS 77 – Salvage harvest**

## RECENT ONGOING STUDIES

- HYDRO-DB- Internet Data Sharing
- Water budget determination for WS 80
- Water quality before and after Hugo
- Effects of prescribed burning after regeneration
- Long term hydrology & WQ comparison with an artificially drained pine forest in NC
- Testing of DRAINMOD and MIKE-SHE models
- COFC, NCSU, SGCP, Tetra-Tech - Cooperators

## OTHER NEW STUDIES

- Comprehensive Fire Effects of Biomass Reduction on Hydrology and Water Quality
- Joint Fire Science Program,  National Interagency Fire Center for 2005-08
- Charleston Harbor TMDL and Water Quality Study
- Tetra-Tech/JJ&G for BCD COG – Flow/WQ Data and WQ sampling

- Control

- Treatment

## RECENT ISSUES OF INTEREST

- Effects of land management: harvesting, thinning, fertilization, prescribed burning including change in land use and natural disturbances (Fire, Hurricanes)
- Hydrologic and water quality impacts of BMPs
- Water yield as affected by land use and climate
- Water quantity and quality from the National Forests compared to intensively managed forests
- Eco-hydrologic and wetland functions
- _Cumulative effects on a watershed-scale_

## TURKEY CREEK WATERSHED-SCALE STUDY (5,000 ha)

## Various

- Types of
- Pine Forest
- Stands

## Drainage, Road Crossings and Water Features

## CURRENT OBJECTIVES

- Stream flow dynamics of Turkey Creek watershed compared to adjacent smaller forested watersheds using historical stream flow data.
- Flow dynamics of the watershed before the Hurricane and 15 years after the Hurricane by resuming the monitoring.

## Slide 14

## OTHER OBJECTIVES

**To apply model(s) for evaluating the effects of depressional storage on wetland functions (Joseph Amoah, Florida A&M)**
- To examine the long-term hydrologic effects of land use change on stream flow dynamics.
- To test the hydrologic models for evaluating the cumulative effects of land use change and management including harvesting, thinning, prescribed burning, biomass treatments on hydrology and water quality.
- To quantify water quality of the Turkey Creek watershed and compare with managed forests.

## METHODS AND TOOLS

- Historical weather and flow data (1964-84)
- Flow data starting in January 2005
- Water quality sampling to be started September 2005
- Water table measurements at study catchments
- Flow monitoring in subwatersheds
- GIS data and tools for their analysis
- Aerial photos/Satellite images (1963, 1968, 1973, 1978, 1983, 1989, 1999, 2004 ?) - land use/land cover estimates
- Remote sensing data – Vegetation and others
- Statistical methods – Double Mass curves, Regression Models
- Mathematical Models – DRAINWAT and SWAT  using spatial GIS data (Lisa & Joseph)

## MONITORING STATIONS

- ~ 5,000 ha

- New USGSgauging station
- WQ/Sampler

- Proposed weather
- Station/Rain gauge

- Rain gauges

- Weather
- Station

**MONITORING STATIONS**

## HYDROLOGIC MEASUREMENTS

**Auto Weather Station**

**Auto Rain gauge**

**GW Wells**

**ISCO WQ sampler**

**Weir gauge/Sampler**

**Flume/Sampler**

**Soil sampling**

## CHICOD CREEK 

**CHICOD CREEK **
**WATERSHED, **
**Coastal NC**

**Flow Calibration**

**Watershed Delineation**

**N Delivery using a DRAINMOD-based model (Fernandez et al. 2003)**

## COLLABORATORS & COOPERATORS

- NCASI, Inc. (A part of fund 04 for NC-SC studies)
- FS Southern Research Station (CCS grant 04 - $17,000)
- CFWR (Facility, Scientist, Tech, Stream gauge, Weather station, ISCO sampler, Lab, Manual gauges)
**College of Charleston (Coop Study) **
- US Geological Survey (Cost share – Stream Gauge)
- Francis Marion National Forest (Study site, staff and data)
- Tetra-Tech, Inc. (Historic data digitizing)
- University of Krakow, Poland (Study - manuscript)
- SC DOT (Access to gauging station)
**Florida A& M University (PhD Study)**
***NEEDS ADDITIONAL SUPPORT FOR STUDIES ??***
***POTENTIAL SOURCES ??***