Northern Research Station
 

Northern Forest Futures Project

Soil and Water Conservation

[image:] water in a glass

Conservation and Maintenance of Soil and Water Resources

Soils are the fundamental resources enabling land to provide a wide array of benefits. Humans and wildlife alike rely on soils for the production of life-sustaining nourishment and shelter. Soil is important to society because it supports plants that supply food, fibers, life-saving drugs and other essentials and because it filters water and recycles wastes. 
Forested watersheds provide water purification, mitigation of floods and droughts, soil retention, and habitat maintenance. The quality and abundance of fresh water in lakes, wetlands, streams, and rivers determine aquatic and terrestrial species biodiversity.


Key Findings

  • Forests protect the soil both directly and indirectly from wind and water erosion. Wind erosion is rare in wooded areas, which are protected by the forest canopy, tree roots, and forest floor litter.
  • Forests in the region have the capacity to supply about 226 million acre-feet of water annually.
  • Forty-eight percent of the North’s water supply originates on the forests that cover 42 percent of the land. About 94 percent of the water that originates from forests is from non-Federal land.
  • Increasing the percent of forest cover improves the ability of a watershed to produce clean water.
  • Many northern watersheds have water quality problems, especially those near major urban centers. Locations of concern include watersheds in New Jersey, Maryland, Ohio, Indiana, southern Illinois, central Michigan, southern Minnesota, and southeastern New Hampshire.
  • Soil compaction is not a widespread problem on the region’s forested lands; it is largely confined to trails (walking, biking, hiking, equestrian, and motorized) and forest harvest operations.
  • Loss of calcium and increase in aluminum in certain soils across the Northeast can stress calcium-sensitive tree species and make them more susceptible to additional stressors such as drought, insects, and diseases. This soil condition is strongly related to acid deposition.

From Forests of the Northern United States, NRS-GTR-90, 2012.

Indicators

Number Indicator Current condition ratinga Recent trend condition ratinga Rating explanation
16 Soil quality  

NA

 Regional inventories show the proportion of bare forest soil and compacted forest soil to be relatively low. Excess aluminum can be toxic to trees and other plants under certain conditions. Many other soil characteristics (such as percent soil organic matter) are now routinely quantified for forest inventory plots, but whether levels are beneficial or detrimental to forest sustainability is debatable. For conserving soil, managing land for forest cover is generally considered preferable to other land uses. Trends in forest soil characteristics are poorly documented.
17 Water supply
and quality		     Nearly half of the region’s surface water supply originates from forest lands and most drinking water comes from surface water sources. Most rainfall and snowmelt in forests moves into streams through subsurface flows, accelerating nutrient uptake and contaminant absorption processes. Increasing forest area in the last century has benefited water quality, but the morerecent losses of forest land to urban development have not.



Highly Positive 

Positive 

Neutral 

Negative 

Highly Negative 


Comments

Maps and Figures

[map:] Calcium aluminum ratio
Calcium aluminum ratio
[map:] watershed characterization
watershed characterization
[map:] Mean water supply
Mean water supply

For additional detail, see Criterion 4: Conservation and maintenance of soil and water resources in the Forests of the Northern United States.