Strong roots anchor soil against erosion and material on the forest floor helps absorb nutrients and sediment. But when forests are disturbed and degraded, sediment flows into streams and pollutes water. In the early s, Colorado experienced wildfires that degraded forests along the Front Range.
Extreme ash and debris from the fires made its way into key waterways, forcing Denver's water utility, which serves 1. Forests help control the water cycle by regulating precipitation, evaporation and flows. Layers of forest canopy, branches and roots can store and release water vapor, which controls rainfall. Forests can also help reduce the impacts of flood from storms by blocking and slowing down the flow of runoff.
Deforestation weakens this process, leading to irregular rainfall patterns including drought and flooding. While deforestation may occur locally, its effect is global. According to Greenpeace , deforestation in Central Africa could decrease rainfall in the U.
Midwest by percent. Texas alone could see a 25 percent decrease in rainfall after Amazon deforestation, affecting agricultural productivity and other sectors.
Communities often rely on expensive water filtration infrastructure to ensure clean water. This cost often increases when erosion deteriorates water quality. Forest understory plants, leaf litter, and tree roots trap sediments and keep them from moving downslope and into waterways.
Forests also reduce pollution including excessive organic matter from farms and polluting chemicals by absorbing and storing them safely. Healthy and well-managed forests with trees of varied sizes and ages and even fallen logs, which are natural sponges , capture and store more snow and rain than overly dense forests or fully cleared areas during wet seasons. These forests also naturally shade snowpack well into warmer and drier months and slowly release water throughout the year, increasing water yield from snowmelt.
Forests shade our rivers, streams, and lakes, cooling and cleaning them for the rich array of fish, frogs, salamanders, and other aquatic life.
That shade reduces heat stress on aquatic plants and animals while limiting the amount of water vapor evaporating into the atmosphere. Large downed logs hold water and provide homes for amphibians, insects, and even small mammals. Intact forests are essential for watershed function. Fragmentation through the sale and development of forests degrades that function.
We prioritize our work in threatened watersheds to ensure water will keep flowing down to the millions that depend on it. Working with landowners, we design and help implement conservation plans that specifically protect and restore waterways forever. This includes keeping forests intact, safeguarded from conversion, and maintaining and restoring natural watershed function.
In our conserved forests, we reduce sediment in waterways by maintaining low-harvest buffer areas near rivers, streams, lakes, and ponds as well as by planting and retaining trees uphill from water bodies to reduce erosion. We restore and maintain canopy cover over streams to shade and cool water to benefit aquatic life and retain large trees near river and stream banks. When they die, these large trees fall into streams and rivers creating eddies and pools to hold water for fish and other water-living creatures.
Our goal is to conserve and restore more natural forests. These more natural forests have a mix of short and tall, young and old trees that, together, better trap cloud and fog moisture—as well as increased amounts of snow—in the coastal and mountainous Pacific forests.
Media Toolkit Publications Links. Forestry Careers. Discover Your Forest Activity Book. Forests soften the impact from rainfall and protect soil from erosion. Tree roots help rainfall soak into the soil and reduce surface runoff, helping to replenish groundwater.
Microbes in the soil break down nutrients and contaminants in runoff water, allowing tree roots to absorb these chemicals before entering waterways. Forests provide habitat and food sources for a variety of organisms including at-risk aquatic species.
Forestry Best Management Practices BMPs Forestry BMPs are proven measures to implement during silvicultural activities such as harvesting timber, reforesting land, building roads, crossing streams, and other typical forestry operations. Slow down runoff by establishing robust Streamside Management Zones SMZs and installing water-control diversions on sloping skid trails, roads and firelines.
Spread out runoff so it can infiltrate into the forest soil.
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