Best Management Practices for Water Quality

Wisconsin's Forestry "Best Management Practices" (BMPs) are voluntary guidelines to help landowners, loggers, and natural resource managers minimize nonpoint pollution from forest management activities.

Nonpoint source pollution occurs when rainfall and snowmelt move across the ground, picking up pollutants, like sediment and chemicals, that are carried into lakes, rivers, and wetlands. The primary pollutant associated with forestry activities is sediment, especially at stream crossings for forest roads and skid trails.

Wisconsin developed the forestry BMPs in response to federal legislation. Section 208 of the 1977 Clean Water Act and Section 319 of the 1987 Water Quality Act requires each state to develop procedures and programs to reduce nonpoint source pollution, including silviculturally related sources, to maximum extent practicable.

The BMP field manual provides over 128 BMPs for forestry activities, addressing issues such as road building, timber harvesting, prescribed burning and the application of chemicals. Copies of Wisconsin's Forestry Best Management Practices for Water Quality Field Manual (Forestry Publication #93 03Rev) are available from the Division of Forestry at (608)267-7494.

For an overview of the first ten years of the Forestry Best Management Practices (BMP) Program, please refer to our publication, Wisconsin's Forestry Best Management Practices for Water Quality 1995 - 2005 (PUB FR-349, PDF, 507KB). It includes descriptions of how the program was developed, education and training efforts, BMP monitoring, and other aspects of the program. The publication also covers program accomplishments and areas for future focus.