Forest harvesting effects on the magnitude and frequency of peak flows can increase with return period

Paired watershed studies have limited researchers wishing to disentangle road and harvesting effects on peak flows or to study management schemes other than the existing scenario. The outcomes of many paired watershed studies examining peak flows have also recently been challenged since only an approach that pairs peak flows by frequency can adequately evaluate the effects of harvesting on peak flows. This study takes advantage of a model that has been developed and extensively tested at a site containing a rich set of internal catchment process observations to examine the isolated and combined effects of roads and harvesting on the peak flow regime of a snow-dominated catchment for return periods of up to 100 years. Contrary to the prevailing perception in forest hydrology, the effects of harvesting are found to increase with return period, which is attributable to the uniqueness of peak flow runoff generation processes in snow-dominated catchments. Planned harvesting (50% harvest area) is found to have a significant effect (9%-25% over control) on peak flows with recurrence intervals ranging 10-100 years. Peak flow frequency increases after harvesting increase with return period, with the largest events (100 year) becoming 5-6.7 times more frequent, and medium-sized events (10 year) becoming 1.7-2 times more frequent. Such changes may have substantial ecological, hydrological, and geomorphological consequences within the watershed and farther downstream. Study findings suggest that peak flow regimes are fairly tolerant to the current level of harvesting in this particular watershed but that further harvesting may affect this element significantly.