MONITORING THE HYDROLOGIC IMPACTS OF FOREST
THINNING AND MANAGEMENT
(U.S. Forest Service, Lassen National Forest)

The Lassen National Forest, through the Community Forest Lands Restoration Program, is developing an large scale fuels reduction/forest restoration program in the Hat Creek and Burney Creek basins. Both catchments are spring-fed trophy trout fisheries, and understanding the role of forest management and climate change on the subsurface hydrology are an important part of the restoration program. Through a series of small (< 2 hectare) plots, we are monitoring the snow inputs, sublimation, transpiration and soil moisture under thinned and unthinned stands near Manzanita Lake in the shadows of Mount Lassen. The project is joint effort with the Lassen National Forest and the Pacific Northwest and Pacific Southwest Research Stations of the Forest Service. For a view of the results from this project, see Hardage et al (2022).