Estimated H.J. Andrews Stream Temperature via Coupled Mechanistic Models

This invited webinar will be presented to the HJ Andrews Forest team during their May 2020 monthly meeting. We provide an overview of forest and stream management modeling tools developed by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for supporting state, tribal and federal partners engaged in forest management and salmon-recovery planning in Pacific Northwest (PNW) watersheds. In this webinar we describe our use of HJ Andrews long-term stream monitoring data to test the performance of EPA’s VELMA watershed simulator coupled with Penumbra, a new landscape shade\irradiance model, to estimate the effects of climate and forest management practices on key stream habitat variables, including water temperature and peak and low flows. These tests illustrate that VELMA and Penumbra can accurately predict stream temperature and peak and low flows for environmentally contrasting HJ Andrews watersheds, ranging from young managed forests to unmanaged old-growth forests. Our results highlight the potential use of VELMA-Penumbra for quantifying terrestrial-aquatic linkages, and the sensitivity of those linkages to changes in land use and climate. These results also highlight the value of long-term, watershed-scale monitoring data as vetting tools to inform management decisions aimed at balancing terrestrial and aquatic ecosystem services, a topic of concern for diverse PNW stakeholder groups involved in watershed restoration and salmon recovery planning.

Impact/Purpose

EPA ORISE Fellow Jonathan Halama will present an invited webinar - Estimated H.J. Andrews Stream Temperature via Coupled Mechanistic Models – for the H.J. Andrews monthly meeting on May 01st, 2020. The objective is to summarize for discussion purposes the use of EPA’s VELMA ecohydrology model for quantifying effects of different forest management practices on steam temperature, a topic of regional concern for salmon recovery planning in Pacific Northwest watersheds. Preliminary results demonstrate VELMA’s new ability for simulating observed long‐term daily stream temperature dynamics, both during winter thermal lows and summer thermal peaks. This webinar supports Region 10 Forest Team goals to provide a forum for Federal, tribal, state and local agencies to work collaboratively to share information, tools and resources; and to use high quality science, modeling, and staff expertise to inform forest management issues throughout the Pacific Northwest region (WA, OR, ID, AK).

Citation

Halama, J., Bob McKane, A. Brookes, K. Djang, B. Barnhart, P. Pettus, Jim Power, AND V. Phan. Estimated H.J. Andrews Stream Temperature via Coupled Mechanistic Models. HJ Andrews May Forestry Meeting, Corvallis, OR, May 01, 2020.