Managing bog environments for recreational experiences

Bogs are of interest to outdoor recreationists, but little information exists concerning how recreation resource managers might manage these areas to enhance visitor benefits. This study evaluates bog visitor characteristics and experiences, visual preferences, and reasons for visiting. Implications for recreational resource management of bogs include the location and design of boardwalk trails and management of understory vegetation to meet the visual preferences and motives of bog visitors.     

A TREE-RING RECONSTRUCTION OF DROUGHT IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA1

ABSTRACT: Indices of annual diameter growth of trees were used to reconstruct drought in southern California back to A.D. 1700. A regional Palmer Drought Index served as predictand and tree-ring indices from eight sites as predictors in multiple linear regression analyses that yielded the prediction (reconstruction) equations. The regression explained 69 percent of the variance in Palmer Index in the period of calibration. The long-term reconstruction indicated that drought was rare in the first half of the current century relative to other discrete 50-year periods, and that based on evidence to date the last half of the 20th century may well turn out to be the most drought prone since A.D. 1700 in southern California.     

Public policy for the use of reclaimed water

This article documents the general need to reuse water reclaimed from sewage effluents for beneficial purposes and then considers in detail which specific uses will be most beneficial. The analysis begins by describing five levels of wastewater treatment: primary, secondary, tertiary, advanced, and advanced plus complete treatment. Next, five major uses for reclaimed water are identified: groundwater recharge, industrial use, irrigation, recreational lakes, and direct municipal reuse. Subcategories of reuse falling under each of the five major reuse categories are also identified and discussed. The analysis then proceeds to review significant literature available on health and environmental effects, treatment and distribution costs, and public opinion concerns in relation to each of the five major uses and their related subcategories. The paper concludes with a cumulative numerical analysis of the disbenefits associated with each specific type of reuse summed over the health effects, environmental effects, treatment costs, distribution costs, and public opinion concerns. Uses of reclaimed water for industrial purposes and for irrigation of fodder and fiber crops are found to be most beneficial by the analysis here employed, and use for aquifer recharge and direct municipal reuse are found to be least beneficial.     

DESK TOP METHODOLOGY FOR MODELING BIOCHEMICAL OXYGEN DEMAND IN STREAMS1

: The modeling of dissolved oxygen in streams is a widely used technique, upon which a great deal of money has been spent. This paper concludes that the standard methods of DO modeling by computer are unnecessarily complex, and that for some purposes, they can be replaced without loss of accuracy by desk top BOD models. Taking as an example, a set of data used in DO modeling, it is shown (a) that the data are grossly inconsistent, (b) that simultaneous gathering of data introduces errors in streams of long travel time, (c) that much more data as to pollutant concentrations should have been obtained, and (d) that 24-hour DO data could have been dispensed with.     

OBJECTIVES AND CONSTRAINTS IN FEDERAL WATER RESOURCES PLANNING1

ABSTRACT: The Water Resources Council's Principles and Standards stipulate that plans should be formulated to meet national, regional, state, and local needs or problems. It is not clear, however, how appropriate consideration can be given to both national objectives (NED and EQ) and local needs and problems. Two methods of incorporating national objectives and local problem solving into water resources planning are examined. They are plan formulation primarily in pursuit of national objectives, and plan formulation to solve local problems, but constrained by national objectives. The first of these methods is the approach which is becoming increasingly explicit in the development and elaboration of the Water Resources Council's Principles and Standards. The analysis indicates that the Water Resources Council's approach is neither the most practical nor the most desirable of the two methods examined. It creates unnecessary difficulties and fails to achieve its purpose. Plan formulation to solve local problems, but constrained by national objectives not only describes what field planners actually do, but is also more practial and more desirable.     

THE MILWAUKEE POLLUTION CASE - IMPLICATIONS FOR WATER RESOURCES PLANNING1

ABSTRACT: The Illinois v. Milwaukee Federal District Court decision is the most far reaching application yet of the federal common law of nuisance to interstate water pollution conflicts. Although a Federal Appelate Court recently rescinded part of the district court decision, Milwaukee must still upgrade its metropolitan sewage system to a level beyond that required by federal and state regulations. The improvements must be completed with or without federal aid. The case points out the apparent inability of the Clean Water Act, the most comprehensive federal legislation affecting the nation's water quality, to deal with certain interstate water quality conflicts. The Milwaukee decision could set a precedent for similar settlements elsewhere which may in turn affect the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's water quality clean up program. A more integrated, ecosystem conscious approach to management of shared water resources (e.g., the Great Lakes) would help reduce the need for court decisions like Illinois v. Milwaukee.     

EROSIONAL POTENTIAL OF STREAMS IN URBANIZING AREAS1

ABSTRACT: In urbanizing areas, the usual increase in flood flows also increases erosional capability of streams. In order to evaluate such tendencies quantitatively, 25 stream reaches were studied, and were classified as to whether erosion of the channel and banks was light, medium, or heavy. Analysis of characteristics indicated that (1) densely developed areas are correlated with greater erosion, (2) wide stream buffers of natural vegetation are correlated with lesser erosion, and (3) there is no definite correlation of erosion to slope or characteristics of soil. Erosional stream instability can be avoided by retention of storm water runoff, creating additional channel roughness or reducing channel slope during floods by drop structures, such as culverts, which restrict flow. Channel straightening and general bank protection should be minimized in such streams. Design of culverts should take such effects into consideration.