Rio Grande National Forest – Draft Assessment 2 Air Quality, Soils, and Water Resources Greg Bevenger, PH, WyoHydro Professional Hydrology Services LLC This document provides a rapid assessment of air, soil, geologic, and water resources that may be useful in developing plan components and other plan content. This assessment is in three sections: Air Quality, Soils, and Watersheds and Water Resources.1 There is a minor amount of repetition between sections in the event they are used as stand-alone documents. 1 This document contains non-italicized excerpts, in-full or paraphrased, from in-house Forest Service sources such as working documents, planning documents, NEPA documents, resource-area specific reports, manuals, handbooks, etc. This information may or may not be cited directly in the text but the source is listed in the information sources sections of the assessment. Information from published literature, such as scientific papers and investigations, is referenced directly in the text, with formal citation in the information sources sections of the assessment. Rio Grande National Forest Draft Assessment 2 – Air Quality, Soils, Geology, Watersheds and Water Resources Table of Contents Air Quality .................................................................................................................................................... 6 Introduction .............................................................................................................................................. 6 Concepts in Air Quality Management .................................................................................................. 6 Legal Framework and Forest Service Policy ........................................................................................ 8 Information Sources and Data Gaps ....................................................................................................... 11 Information Sources ............................................................................................................................ 11 Data Gaps ............................................................................................................................................ 13 Existing Forest Plan Direction for Air Quality ....................................................................................... 13 Desired Conditions .............................................................................................................................. 13 Objective ............................................................................................................................................. 13 Standards and Guidelines .................................................................................................................... 13 Scale of Analysis .................................................................................................................................... 13 Airsheds .................................................................................................................................................. 13 Air Quality .............................................................................................................................................. 15 Existing and Potential Sources and Inventories .................................................................................. 15 Air Resource Monitoring .................................................................................................................... 24 Natural Hazards ...................................................................................................................................... 47 Multiple Uses / Ecosystem Services ....................................................................................................... 47 Conditions and Trends ............................................................................................................................ 47 Need for Change ..................................................................................................................................... 49 Soils ............................................................................................................................................................ 50 Introduction ............................................................................................................................................ 50 Concepts in Soils Management ........................................................................................................... 50 Legal Framework and Forest Service Policy ...................................................................................... 52 Information Sources and Gaps................................................................................................................ 53 Information Sources ............................................................................................................................ 53 Data Gaps ............................................................................................................................................ 54 Existing Forest Plan Direction for Soils ................................................................................................. 54 Desired Conditions .............................................................................................................................. 54 Objective ............................................................................................................................................. 54 Standards and Guidelines .................................................................................................................... 55 Scale of Analysis .................................................................................................................................... 55 Existing Condition and Trend of Soils ................................................................................................... 55 Inventories ........................................................................................................................................... 55 Important Attributes, Characteristics, and Processes .......................................................................... 55 Conditions ........................................................................................................................................... 58 Trends ................................................................................................................................................. 59 Multiple Uses / Ecosystem Services ....................................................................................................... 60 Local Soil Resource Concerns ................................................................................................................ 60 Need for Change ..................................................................................................................................... 61 Watersheds and Water Resources ............................................................................................................... 62 Introduction ............................................................................................................................................ 62 Concepts in Watershed and Water Resources Management ............................................................... 63 Legal Framework and Forest Service Policy ...................................................................................... 64 Information Sources and Gaps................................................................................................................ 65 Information Sources ............................................................................................................................ 65 Data Gaps ............................................................................................................................................ 67 Rio Grande National Forest - 1 – Forestwide Planning Assessment Rio Grande National Forest Draft Assessment 2 – Air Quality, Soils, Geology, Watersheds and Water Resources Existing Forest Plan Direction for Watersheds and Water Resources .................................................... 67 Desired Conditions .............................................................................................................................. 67 Objectives ........................................................................................................................................... 67 Standards and Guidelines .................................................................................................................... 68 Scale of Analysis .................................................................................................................................... 68 Existing Condition and Trend of Watersheds and Water Resources ...................................................... 68 Inventories ........................................................................................................................................... 68 Important Attributes, Characteristics, and Processes .......................................................................... 69 Conditions ........................................................................................................................................... 79 Historical