Hydrological impacts of changing land management practices in a moderate‐sized agricultural catchment

Abstract

Since the mid‐1930s a variety of soil conservation practices have been applied to agricultural lands throughout the United States. While intended to reduce soil erosion, if effective, these practices should alter the hydrology of streams which drain the treated lands. This hypothesis was explored for the East Branch of the Pecatonica River, a gaged 221 square mile agricultural catchment in southwestern Wisconsin. On the basis of the analysis of peak and daily flow data there has been a decrease in flood peaks and in winter/spring flood volumes and an increase in hydrologic rise times and in the contribution of winter/spring snowmelt events to base flow. These changes do not appear to be due to climatic variations, reservoir construction, or major land use changes. Instead, they appear to have resulted from the adoption of various soil conservation practices, particularly those involving the treatment of gullies and the adoption of conservation tillage.