Overview of MRAT and STAC recommendations for monitoring small watersheds

1. Overview of MRAT and STAC recommendations for monitoring small watersheds Katie Foreman April 22, 2010 NTWG meeting USGS –Baltimore Office

2. Both reports highlight the importance of small watershed studies Small watershed studies provide the best opportunities to assess the effectiveness of management actions and understand the multiple factors affecting water-quality change. • less varied pollution sources • Homogenous land cover and landuse practices can be more easily tracked

3. 4 MRAT recommendations for studying small watersheds (2009 report) • Synthesize lessons learned in past and on-going small watershed studies. • The CBP NTN should locate a sentinel long-term nontidal network site in selected small watershed study areas with increased implementation. • Partner with small watershed study researchers and provide synoptic surveys and other monitoring support to small watershed studies to support evaluation of management actions. • Work with partners to encourage an increase in data-management efforts that support the evaluation of management actions. • 1) assemble and document historical information on land use, point sources, population, and agricultural activity, 2) create a sustainable process for tracking watershed information in the future, and 3) make this information available to support assessment, research, and modeling efforts.

4. 9 STAC recommendations for monitoring small watersheds (2010 report) • Study the effects of conservation practices in watersheds that discharge relatively high amounts of agricultural nutrients to Chesapeake Bay. • Focus on measuring agricultural nitrogen inputs and discharges. • Study smaller watersheds (10-40 km2) within the larger areas of high agricultural impact. • Make a long-term commitment (5 -10+ yr) to four essential tasks in all study watersheds: maintaining conservation practices, assembling and sharing spatially explicit data on conservation practices and other agricultural activities, watershed monitoring, and data analysis. • Seek innovative arrangements to overcome institutional and legal barriers to assembling and sharing data on conservation practices and agricultural activities. • To quantify effects on nitrogen discharge, use inexpensive, low-frequency (e.g., quarterly) sampling of baseflow nitrate from many study watersheds selected to represent a wide range of levels of conservation practices.

5. 9 STAC recommendations for monitoring small watersheds (con’t) • To quantify effects on phosphorus and sediment discharge, use continuous automated water quality monitoring to capture the important effects of episodic high flows. • Sample a few well-studied watersheds before and after significant new practice implementation can be achieved, or • Sample a few paired watersheds where significant new implementation can be directed to experimental watersheds AND excluded from control watersheds. • Build partnerships within the study watersheds to implement and maintain the conservation practices, to collect data on conservation practices and agricultural activities, and to conduct the watershed monitoring. And • Build partnerships to coordinate among study watershed efforts and to analyze resulting data.