Assessing effectiveness of long-term forestry best management practices on stream water quality at a basin scale—a case study in Southern USA

Forestry best management practices (BMPs) have proven to be very effective in protecting adjacent stream water quality at the plot scale. However, our knowledge is incomplete about the effectiveness of forestry BMPs in large watersheds where industrial forests are intensively managed. In this study, we compared long-term concentrations and loadings of total suspended solids (TSS), nitrate/nitrite nitrogen (NO 3 NO 2 –N), total Kjeldahl nitrogen (TKN), and total phosphorus (TP) before (1978–1988) and after extensive implementation of forestry BMPs (1994–2008) at the outlet of a 5000-km 2 river basin that is predominately covered by intensively managed pine forests in Central Louisiana, USA. Our study shows that after extensive BMP implementation, both concentrations and loads of TSS in the basin outlet decreased significantly from 34 to 25 mg L −1 and from 55,000 to 36,700 t year −1 , respectively. However, no significant difference was found in NO 3 NO 2 –N, TKN, and TP concentrations between the two periods. The results of nutrient loadings varied, whereby the annual nitrogen loading declined without significant differences (from 1790 to 1600 t year −1 for TKN and from 176 to 158 t year −1 for NO 3 NO 2 –N, respectively) but the annual TP loading increased significantly (from 152 to 192 t year −1 ) after BMP implementation. The increase in TP loading is likely due to an increased application of phosphorus fertilizer, which offset BMPs’ effects especially during high-flow conditions. These results strongly suggest that current forestry BMPs in this region are effective in reducing sediment loading, but current BMP guidelines for fertilization and nutrient management need to be reviewed and improved.