This special issue of the Natural Areas Journal focuses on the stewardship of protected landscapes for the benefit of freshwater quality and quantity and for aquatic ecosystem integrity. Land stewardship, the responsible use and care of natural lands and ecological resources, can be done in ways that enhance, or at least avoid harming, connected aquatic ecosystems and the people that depend upon the renewable goods and services provided by fresh waters. There is a critical need for a compendium of current science on the effects of various land stewardship practices on freshwater ecosystems, to guide the planning and implementation of on-the-ground stewardship activities, identify knowledge gaps for research scientists, provide funders of land stewardship activities with knowledge that can be applied to the evaluation of grant proposals and project outcomes, and offer the scientific evidence underlying the most efficient and effective practices to decision makers involved in developing and amending conservation policy. Our objectives with this special issue are to further the process of compiling the relevant science and encourage those involved in conservation land management to automatically and routinely consider the effects of their practices on water quality and quantity.

The benefits of protected natural areas to freshwater quality and quantity and aquatic ecosystem integrity are indisputable, but how those protected lands are managed has a strong influence on the degree of benefit. Stewardship practices in riparian areas, floodplains, and other locations near surface waters have the greatest influence on freshwater resources. When done judiciously and based on current scientific understanding, they can reduce or eliminate excessive inputs of sediment, nutrients, pathogens, organic matter, and pollutants to fresh waters by minimizing disturbance to soils and to the soil-protecting and soil-building functions of vegetation. The challenges are not simply identifying the current best stewardship practices, but also include deciding among competing management goals and priorities; putting effective incentives in place (and amending or avoiding perverse incentives) for implementation of conservation practices; succeeding within a framework of social, political, and economic constraints; and acting effectively despite considerable uncertainty. This overview and the other papers in this special issue report recent advances in the environmental sciences, and also the science of human behavior, that will be pivotal for land stewards as they take into consideration the freshwater consequences of their actions.

As invasive nonindigenous plants colonize streamside ecosystems, they can transform ecological functioning by replacing native species, altering interspecific interactions, and reducing biodiversity. As a result of the intimate relationship between the riparian areas and their associated freshwater ecosystems, alteration of the riparian community may be reflected in the freshwater ecosystem. Research conducted in arid climates repeatedly has demonstrated that invasive nonindigenous plants can reduce water quantity, but far fewer studies have investigated the effects on water quantity and aquatic ecosystem functions when nonindigenous plants invade mesic temperate riparian areas. We identified 35 studies published since 1981 documenting impacts to freshwater ecosystems in mesic temperate climates attributable to invasions of riparian areas by nonindigenous plants. These studies revealed impacts on water quantity and on ecosystem function related to water temperature, edaphic characteristics, and physical and chemical alteration in allochthonous inputs. However, our assessment of the results found great variability in hydrological and ecological responses, with the strongest evidence for changes to (1) the timing of allochthonous organic matter inputs, (2) organic matter decomposition rates in aquatic ecosystems, and (3) aquatic community structure. In addition, in watersheds densely colonized by nitrogen-fixing invasive species, stream eutrophication is likely to occur. Because of the variability in the existing research results, more studies need to be focused specifically on invaded mesic temperate riparian ecosystems. Furthermore, more research is needed to consider the impact of additional problematic plant species that have yet to be studied, the correlation between invasive plant density and aquatic ecosystem response, the relationship between the length of time a plant community has been invaded and the aquatic community's reaction, and if invasive plant management and native species reintroduction can help restore the aquatic ecosystem.

Proponents of wilderness often cite the provision of high-quality water as a key benefit provided by designated wilderness areas to society. We critically examine this claim by exploring the relationship between wilderness and water resources from an economic perspective. We demonstrate strong spatial and hydrological links from wilderness areas to downstream users: substantial portions of the United States' total water resources originate in, or flow through, wilderness areas. We then discuss coarse estimates of the total economic value of this water flowing from wilderness that could be based on this and related information, focusing our attention on the limitations of this approach. We then consider preliminary examples of the potential specific effects of alternative management schemes on the localized benefits of water resources. Throughout, we demonstrate theoretical and practical challenges to the more readily available approaches for estimating the value added to water resources by wilderness areas. We argue that rigorous characterization of the economic benefits provided by wilderness through water resources, if desired, will require substantial more development of case studies using these types of alternative approaches. That said, our review of the evidence demonstrates many important connections between the water resources that society depends upon and the public lands that it protects as wilderness.

(This paper is reprinted from a 2019 US Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Southern Research Station publication titled A Perpetual Flow of Nature's Benefits: State-of-the Knowledge Report on the Economic, Social, and Tribal Values of Wilderness in America.)

Forests of the eastern United States provide numerous ecosystem services, including water filtration. Forest management activities of eastern forests often include prescribed fire to accomplish a variety of management objectives such as invasive species control, wildlife habitat improvement, ecosystem restoration, and hazardous fuel reduction. Despite widespread use of prescribed fire in this region and the need to maintain adequate water quality from forests impacted by this practice, there is a paucity of knowledge on prescribed fire's impacts on water quality. This article summarizes and consolidates known impacts of prescribed fire on chemical, physical, and biological properties related to water quality and freshwater ecosystems in moist-temperate eastern North America, including impacts on drinking water treatability. Based upon this synthesis, it appears that most prescribed fires in eastern forests are low intensity and low severity and cause minimal changes to forest soil properties, leading to minimal adverse impacts that might exacerbate soil erosion and adversely affect surface waters. In some cases, prescribed fire has been shown to enhance water quality in the region. Technological advancements in monitoring fire behavior have the potential to advance our knowledge regarding the effects of prescribed fire on water quality in the eastern forest region, particularly for fires of mixed or moderate severity and fires occurring in complex terrain.

After decades of efforts by the agricultural and scientific communities to manage the impacts of farming through Best Management Practice (BMP) implementation, there is a need to communicate to program managers and policy makers how effective these practices actually are via their expected effects on aquatic ecosystems. Land managers, biologists, funders, and policy makers could all greatly benefit from how to account for factors that influence reductions in compounds accomplished by BMP projects, to set expectations for physiochemical and biological community responses. To date there have been a great deal of studies on how BMPs may relate to nutrients and sediment in streams, and there is some professional consensus on expected outcomes on water chemistry. Studies based on observational and/ or modelled data have yielded very broad ranges of 0–92% reductions in nitrogen compounds, 0–91% in phosphorus compounds, and 0–90% in total suspended sediments; these ranges make it difficult to choose values for reliable models and predictions. Uncertainty in expected abiotic responses to BMP implementation also implies a potentially broad range of biotic responses. In this review, we synthesize results from studies investigating how the application of agricultural BMPs affect the water quality and ecological integrity of nearby water bodies and provide suggestions for monitoring BMP projects to better understand the effects of these practices. The objective of this review is to compare study results on BMP effectiveness as well as to contribute information for decision-making on BMP implementation. Our synthesis highlights the high variability in reported BMP impacts and, subsequently, the need for single studies to be interpreted with caution. We conclude with recommendations for land management and further studies of BMP effectiveness.

The Arkansas Natural Heritage Commission (ANHC)'s 1225-ha Devil's Eyebrow Natural Area (DENA), located at the northern end of Beaver Lake along Indian Creek, Butler Creek, and their tributaries, is an ecologically significant site in the Ozark Highlands that falls primarily within the Beaver Lake Watershed, deemed the number-one priority watershed by Arkansas's Unified Watershed Assessments and Restoration Priorities Report due to its designation as an extraordinary water resource, the presence of imperiled aquatic species in the watershed, its role as one of the most important supplies of drinking water in the state, and its status as both an impaired water body and an interstate “water of concern.” Beaver Lake supplies drinking water to more than 420,000 people, one in eight Arkansans, and industries including the Walmart Home Office in northwest Arkansas. DENA protects 5 km of Beaver Lake frontage and 7.5 km of critical tributaries in the watershed and is part of a broader interconnected Conservation Corridor that includes Nature Conservancy preserves, Army Corps of Engineers property surrounding Beaver Lake, Hobbs State Park Conservation Area in Arkansas, and the Mark Twain National Forest and Roaring River State Park in Missouri. Water quality protection and improvement has been a critical component driving the funding of DENA, as well as both a direct and indirect focus of much of ANHC's ongoing restoration efforts on the property. Road improvements to decrease sedimentation, reforestation efforts, and feral swine removal have all served to improve water quality in the watershed. A project to improve glade habitat for several species of greatest conservation need through cedar removal has had the added benefit of providing aquatic habitat structure for fish and improving angling opportunities in Beaver Lake. This project serves as a model for conservation partnerships in critical watersheds and also highlights how efforts to directly improve water quality, as well as efforts with indirect benefits to watersheds (conceived primarily to restore terrestrial habitats), can have far-ranging benefits for ecosystems, imperiled species, and stakeholders. Here we present how the ANHC and its conservation partners have successfully used various strategies to build local support, leverage funding, engage the public, and conduct meaningful conservation at a regional scale.

We propose that small patches of land protected by low (1.2-m tall) fence is a viable approach for restoring and/or conserving forests in riparian or upland areas with high white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus Zimmerman) populations. We also propose that this new approach may be advantageous because, unlike tree shelters, fenced areas protect shrubs just as well as trees in afforestation projects. Multi-year field experiments were performed involving deer exclosures where fence height and fenced area were manipulated in upland and lowland pasture and forest settings. Results show that low fencing significantly increased seedling survival and growth relative to unfenced areas when fenced areas were small (i.e., less than or equal to ∼100 m²). Moreover, tall fencing (1.8 or 2.3 m) did not provide significantly greater protection than shorter (1.2-m) fencing when the fenced areas were kept small. We propose that creating small patches of deer-free pasture or forest habitat will greatly support new approaches to afforestation such as applied nucleation. Finally, we show that low-stature fencing may also have application for protecting larger areas (≥0.8 ha) if the fencing is deployed around the perimeter as two low fences erected in parallel and with a small (3-m) space between them. We conclude that low fencing can result in levels of survival and growth of both trees and shrubs suitable to meet the success criteria for afforestation projects funded by the US federal government.

The chaparral-dominated national forests of southern California were in part established to provide water provision services to the surrounding urban populations and irrigation for agriculture. However, water provision in the form of groundwater recharge and surface runoff depends on the climatological conditions of any given year and also landscape-scale disturbances such as fire. Fire is increasing in frequency in southern California and understanding its impacts both immediately postfire and as vegetation recovers, and the interactions between fire and hydrology, are key components to managing federal lands effectively. In this study we focus on nine fires in a study area that encompasses the four southern California national forests (Los Padres, Angeles, San Bernardino, and Cleveland) and use a water balance model to investigate the effects of water provision services post-fire at a regional scale. We found that runoff and recharge increased post-fire, with increases in recharge being greater with recovery times ranging from 2 to 4 y post-fire. Vegetation recovery occurred 2 y post-fire for all basins as indicated by remotely sensed imagery measuring vegetation greenness having returned to or exceeded pre-fire values for the basin. We found that runoff and recharge were more sensitive to the effects of climate than to length of time post-fire. Findings from these modeling tools allow users to anticipate the impact of fire on water provision services in the region and develop management strategies that help reduce the impacts of wildfire.

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