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Northern Research Station
11 Campus Blvd., Suite 200
Newtown Square, PA 19073
(610) 557-4017
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Scientists & Staff

Pamela Edwards

Title: Research Hydrologist
Unit: Ecological and Economic Sustainability of the Appalachian Forest in an Era of Globalization
Address: Northern Research Station
P.O. Box 404
Parsons, WV 26287
Phone: 304-478-2000, ext. 129
E-mail: Contact Pamela Edwards

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Education

  • Ph.D. Forest Soils, North Carolina State University
  • M.S. Forest Hydrology, The Pennsylvania State University
  • B.S. Forest Science, The Pennsylvania State University

Civic & Professional Affiliations

  • American Water Resources Association
  • Adjunct Associate Professor of Forest Hydrology, The Pennsylvania State University
  • Adjunct Assistant Professor of Forest Hydrology, Southern Illinois University
  • Adjunct Assistant Professor of Forestry, West Virginia University
  • Adjunct Faculty Member, Marshall University

Current Research

  • I am working collaboratively with the Monongahela National Forest, Southern Illinois University, and West Virginia University to quantify sediment delivery to streams in undisturbed and managed forested watersheds and to define the hillslope controls of sediment delivery. This study has been going on since 1999. We have identified problems with road construction and harvesting practices that exacerbate erosion and in-stream sedimentation. From this information, I am focusing on developing new approaches and best management practices to reduce soil loss and in-stream sedimentation.
  • Over the past several years, I have worked with a team to develop a protocol for States to use to monitor the effectiveness of forestry best management practices. More recently, I have begun working with a team of primarily Forest Service personnel to develop a national approach to monitor BMP implementation and effectiveness on Agency lands for activities including but not limited to: roads, recreation sites, facilities, ATV use, mining and gas well sites, and grazing and range uses.
  • I am examining storm hydrograph responses from precipitations event on six watersheds over a 50-year period to identify how stormflow (both volume and timing parameters) is affected by forest harvesting at different intensities, road construction, and large-scale applications of herbicides.
  • I am working with a nongovernmental organization, the Cacapon Institute, and State agencies to design and test the effectiveness of small, inexpensive in-stream log structures to increase moisture storage in streambanks and floodplain pasture soils in the South Branch of the Potomac Watershed. We are trying to simulate the effects that beaver dams once had on the landscape.
  • I am examining the effects of artificial watershed acidification on soil water and stream water chemistry, particularly stormflow chemistry. This study has several cooperators and has been on-going since 1989. It is one of only two whole watershed acidification studies in the United States, examining biogeochemical processes that are expected to result from soil acidification of Northeastern forests by acid deposition.

Why is This Important

  • Sediment is the single most important stream and river pollutant nationwide and worldwide. While there is substantial literature documenting that roads, landings, and other areas of exposed soil are the primary sources of in-stream sediment in forests, there are essentially no studies that have quantified sediment delivery from the hillside to streams in undisturbed and managed forested watersheds. This is one of the most needed pieces of information for forest managers, because not all sediment eroded from a road will reach a stream, but ultimately sediment that reaches the stream is the portion of that is of most concern in terms of stream health. Furthermore, estimates of natural geologic erosion are being determined with this study, so increases from forest management activities can be put into perspective relative to background levels.
  • The need to employ BMPs in forestry operations is derived from direction in the Clean Water Act. Forestry has a silvicultural exception from formal permitting requirements as long as BMPs are employed. Additionally, the National Forest Management Act requires monitoring on National Forest lands to ensure that resource health is not negatively affected by management activities. However, the lack of consistent, repeatable monitoring approaches has made it difficult for both States and the Forest Service to document BMP implementation and effectiveness. The State-oriented and Forest Service monitoring protocols will allow better accountability to the public and more consistent feedback for adaptive management of natural resources.
  • During the last decade, there have been multiple catastrophic flood events in Eastern watersheds that also recently underwent a variety of management activities, including logging, roading, mining, and development. Communities in these watersheds have voiced concern that logging and mining have contributed to and exacerbated flooding. Typically, modeling has been used to determine the degree of flow augmentation of each, but many of these models were not developed for forests and/or they have not been validated for forested watersheds. Therefore, quantifying if/how and the degree to which stormflow hydrology is altered by forestry is extremely important.

Future Research

Working with Regions 8 and 9 to study: 1) the efficacy and economic value of terrestrial liming to promote forest regeneration following harvesting in watersheds that have strongly acidified soils, 2) the effects on soil and soil solution chemistry in the uplands and near-stream areas, and 3) the effects on stream water chemistry (both baseflow and stormflow).

Examine changes to headwater stream channel morphology that result from frequent repeated burning for fuels reduction purposes and savannah creation in the East.

Defining biophysical attributes that can be used to identify the transition areas from perennial to intermittent stream channels, intermittent to ephemeral channels, and ephemeral channels to inactive swale positions.

Identifying bankfull flows in intermittent channels in small subwatersheds (< 100 ac) that have long streamflow records, and then identifying the recurrence interval associated with bankfull in these small stream systems.

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Last Modified: 02/15/2012