# Forestry Best Management Practices Relationships with Aquatic and Riparian Fauna: A Review
## 4 Conclusions  
This literature review indicates that forestry operations in the pre-BMP era had the potential to negatively affect water quality and aquatic and riparian species, and that current forestry BMPs can help protect water quality and habitat conditions for a variety of riparian and aquatic wildlife during forestry operations. Although there are relatively few direct evaluations of the specific effects of forestry BMPs on individual aquatic or riparian species, the effects of forestry BMPs are likely beneficial for the following reasons. Riparian and aquatic species in general benefit from reduction of anthropogenic pollutants. Forestry BMPs, which were specifically designed to limit sediment, nutrient, and other pollutant entry into streams, help protect habitat for many riparian and aquatic species. State forestry agencies report that forestry BMP implementation levels across the United States are above 90%, and within the Southeastern region overall implementation rates are about 92% [11]. Forestry BMPs specifically target roads, skid trails, and stream crossings, as these forest operations have greater potential to cause water quality problems if BMPs are not applied. Forestry BMPs have been shown in numerous research investigations and comprehensive reviews to protect water quality from sediment, nutrient, and chemical pollution. Thus, a wide variety of species that are negatively influenced by such pollutants should benefit from BMPs that protect water quality. The BMPs recommended by several of the southeastern states have been shown to protect water quality, and multiple studies have reported little to no change in aquatic macroinvertebrate community diversity following timber harvesting with BMPs. Therefore, BMPs should benefit individual aquatic and riparian species that are negatively influenced by sediment and other pollutants. Stream crossings receive particular attention in forestry BMP guidelines in the southeastern United States for several reasons. Research indicates that stream crossings with inadequate or no BMPs are likely to provide direct connectivity of sediment generated from road systems to hydrologic networks. As a result, BMPs for stream crossings were developed to minimize effects on stream water quality and stream dependent organisms. Therefore, appropriate stream crossings, adherence to installation recommendations, and other properly implemented water quality BMPs will help protect aquatic and riparian species. SMZs are an especially important type of BMP because managed riparian buffers provide habitat and water quality benefits for both riparian and aquatic organisms. Riparian buffers protect the stream from thermal pollution, which can negatively affect a host of species. Riparian buffers also provide leaf litter and woody debris, both of which are critically important to aquatic food chains, stream habitat, and stream structure and morphology. Riparian forests are zones where sediment, nutrients, and chemicals can be trapped and transformed by physical, soil and plant processes. Finally, SMZs provide habitats for species associated with riparian forests and potentially provide refugia for species affected by adjacent forest management activities. Current state SMZ recommendations or requirements maintain water quality and greatly reduce potential risks to aquatic and riparian species during forest management. Although implementation of BMPs has been shown to benefit aquatic macroinvertebrate communities, information about the direct effects of forestry BMPs for forest operations on many individual aquatic and riparian faunaal species is limited. Therefore, additional research investigating the responses of aquatic and riparian species and communities to modern forestry practices that include implementation of BMPs, is warranted.