Small Scale Watershed Monitoring

The Hoopa Valley Tribe through the office of the Hoopa Tribal Forestry annually planned and harvested approximately 9.8 million board feet of timber. The timber harvest were located mainly on upper ridges of the Reservation in the headwater areas of streams tributary to The Trinity River. As part of the timber harvest planning process Hoopa Tribal Forestry completed an Environmental Assessment (EA) of the watersheds in which the harvest is to occur. Part of the EA assessed the expect amount of additional sediment which may delivered to streams with in the harvest area. Currently there is no actual data on the amount of sediment in excess of back ground which is generated by harvesting in the headwater areas of streams on the Reservation.

Proposed Goals

The goal of monitoring a small scale watershed is to develop a better understanding of what the potential is for generating delivered sediment in excess of background and the quantity of that excess delivered sediment.

Project Objectives

The objective of the monitoring project is to collect sufficient suspended load data from a single small headwaters watershed of a stream with in the 2006 timber sale area to adequately characterize the quantity of sediment in suspension in the stream pre and post timber harvest.

Proposed Goals

The overall goal is to assess the effectiveness of Tribal Forestrys road betterment program in maintaining and upgrading roads to a condition producing long term reduction in delivered sediment.

Project Objectives

Assess the effectiveness of the individual treatment methods used to maintain and upgrade Forest Roads used in conjunction with the Hoopa Valley Tribes annual timber sale and harvest on its Reservation.

Project Activities and Methods

Overview: Forest roads and stream crossings have been identified as the primary source of sediment delivered to streams. Hoopa Tribal Forestry has completed a survey of all stream crossings, identified failing crossings and is currently developing plans to remove or replace these failing crossings. Hoopa Tribal Forestry is currently collecting data on the sediment delivery potential of the 400 mile network of forest roads on the Reservation to facilitate the planning of road betterment projects. As a next step in Forestrys program to reduce sediment delivery from forest roads information is needed on the effectiveness of the treatment methods used in maintaining and upgrading the forest roads on the Reservation.

Assessment: Funding of this proposal will provide Forestry with the monies to design and implement an assessment of its road betterment program for the 400 mile network of forest roads on the Hoopa Valley Indian Reservation. The design of the road betterment effectiveness survey will be based on filed data collected on pre and post maintenance and upgrade treatments.

Contracting: The work associated with carrying out and completing the forest roads assessment project will undertaken by forestry personnel under the direction of Hoopa Tribal Forestrys Geologist. No part of the planned project will be contracted to outside parties.

Method: The road betterment survey will be implemented by selecting segments of roads designated for betterment which exhibit significant sediment delivery surface features. The features will be mapped in detail and photographed from established photo points. The road segment will be re-photographed after treatment but prior to the onset of the winter rainy season. The selected road segment will then be photographed after the rainy season and if any failures of the treatment used are noted detailed mapping will be done of the failures. A analyses of any post treatment failures will be undertaken aimed at refining the road betterment treatments used to maintain and upgrade roads to reduce the quantity of sediment delivered to streams on the Hoopa Valley Reservation.

The project will greatly benefit the Hoopa Valley Tribes efforts to mitigate the impact of its timber program on Reservation streams.