Loading Publication...
close
Oct 2014

Accelerated Forest Thinning Improves Runoff in Salt-Verde watersheds

Robles, M., Marshall, R., O'Donnell, F., Smith, E., Haney, J., and Gori, D.
Climate Change, Forest Restoration Benefits
Forest, Riparian-aquatic
Verde River
Abstract

This article examines the influence of climate variability and accelerated forest thinning on runoff in ponderosa pine forests in the Salt and Verde River watersheds in central Arizona. The effects of thinning treatments were examined over 15-, 25-, and 35-year periods. Over the course of treatments, cumulative runoff on thinned forests was about 20% greater than un-thinned forests, regardless of whether forest thinning occurred in a dry or wet period. Runoff gains were temporary and modest when compared to total annual flows in Salt-Verde (≤3%). Nonetheless, additional runoff from thinning could help offset projected declines in snowpack due to warming, augment river flows on a seasonal basis, improve conditions for water dependent natural resources, as well as provide incidental benefits to downstream users.

Links
Robles et al. 2014
PDF, 948.5 kB
 

Explore Our Science

For publications and reports from our science team, please search here. However, to see the rest of our content, including many new science stories, please go to our new page here.

Explore Our Science

Jun 2025
Papers
Arizona
Forest
Forest Restoration Benefits
USFS
Evan Hjerpe and Anne Mottek Lucas, Conservation Economics Institute
Regional Economic Contributions of the Four Forests Restoration Initiative (4FRI) in Northern Arizona in 2023
A regional economic contribution analysis of the Four Forest Restoration Initiative (4FRI) was conducted for Calendar Year 2023, illustrating regional employment and output from 4FRI in five northern Arizona counties. Forest restoration in communities with high wildfire risk is done primarily throug[…]
Dec 2024
Maps
BLM, NGO
Freshwater Assessment
Riparian-aquatic
San Pedro River
Dale Turner, Brooke Bushman, Lisa McCauley, Patrick Hellmann
San Pedro River Wet/Dry Map Animation
Every June groups of volunteers walk the entire 170 mile length of the San Pedro River and record where it is wet and where it is dry during the hottest, driest time of the year. Twenty years’ worth of data on summertime surface flows in the San Pedro River within the San Pedro Riparian National C[…]
Dec 2024
Maps
BLM, NGO
Freshwater Assessment
Riparian-aquatic
San Pedro River
Turner, D., L. McCauley, P. Hellmann
San Pedro River Wet-Dry Maps
The San Pedro River wet/dry mapping dataset is a community effort to track the river’s health by monitoring the persistence of surface water during the driest time of each year. It is created by recording the end points of every wet section of the San Pedro River during June each year. Maps depict[…]