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LAWS AND REGULATIONS RELATING TO SOIL QUALITY MONITORING AND LONG TERM SOIL PRODUCTIVITY

Organic Administration Act (1897)

This law defines the original purposes of National Forests: to improve and protect the forest, to secure favorable conditions of water flows, and to furnish a continuous supply of timber. Years of scientific concern and public debate about watershed damage led to creation of the National Forest System. Congress wanted watersheds to be managed with care to sustain their hydrologic function. Watersheds were recognized as systems that synthesize inputs of water and energy with geology, soils, landforms, and vegetation to produce a range of land and water forms and hydrologic and biotic processes.

Multiple Use-Sustained Yield Act (1960)

This law amplifies the purposes of National Forests to include outdoor recreation, range, timber, watershed, wildlife and fish. The renewable surface resources of the National Forests are to be managed for multiple use and sustained yield of the several products and services that they provide. The principles of multiple use and sustained yield include the provision that the productivity of the land shall not be impaired.

National Forest Management Act (1976)

This law calls on the Forest Service to be a leader in conserving natural resources (Section 2). It mandates programs to protect and, where appropriate, improve the quality of soil and water (Section 5). It orders regulations to be developed to ensure that timber will be harvested only where: (1) soil, slope and other watershed conditions will not be irreversibly damaged; (2) the land can be adequately restocked within five years after harvest; and (3) streams and banks, lakes and shorelines, wetlands and other water bodies are protected from detrimental impacts. (Section 6g).

All management prescriptions must conserve soil and water resources, not allow significant or permanent impairment of land productivity, and comply with the Clean Water Act. Special attention shall be given to land vegetation for about 100 feet from the edges of all perennial streams, lakes and other water bodies. No management practices causing detrimental changes in water temperature or chemical composition, blockages of water courses, or deposits of sediment shall be permitted which seriously and adversely affect water conditions or fish habitat in these areas (36 CFR 219.23d, 219.27a, and 219.27e). 36 CFR 219.27 specifically states, "Monitoring requirements shall provide for documentation of the measured prescriptions and effects including significant changes in land (soil) productivity."