Forested Riparian Buffers

Join us for a joint presentation on Forest Riparian Buffers.

This webinar has been approved for ISA credits (SAF credits pending but likely).

The Ohio State University's Dr. Lorrayne Miralha will present 'Riparian zone sensing: tracking hydrological and biogeochemical pulses in managed forested systems.' She will share her work in forested riparian buffers in Northern California, Coshocton, Ohio, and Brazil. Specifically, she will explain how high-resolution sensing technology can support management and policy decisions for harvesting in the US, while also discussing differences in hydrological responses across diverse forested systems undergoing restoration.

ODNR, Division of Forestry's Bob Mulligan will present 'Bridging the Gap between Riparian Protection and Timber Production.' Bob’s presentation will focus on the importance of pre-harvest planning, minimizing riparian degradation from heavy equipment, and the most recent state standards regarding riparian setbacks and damage mitigation.  He will also highlight the Division of Forestry’s Logging Bridge Rental Program, designed to assist loggers and landowners who need cross streams to access timber safely.

Speaker Bios:

Bob Mulligan has worked in the field of natural resources and soil conservation for over 33 years.  He currently serves as the Forest Hydrology Manager for the ODNR Division of Forestry.  In that role, Bob oversees the Division’s Forestry Pollution Abatement Program and assists with the enforcement of Ohio’s Forestry Pollution Abatement Law.  Bob responds to forestry erosion complaints and educates loggers and landowners on the proper use of Best Management Practices (BMPs) that protect water quality by reducing soil sediment from logging and other forest management activities.  Bob also served as editor and lead writer for the book BMPs for Erosion Control for Logging and Forestry Practices in Ohio.  The BMPs within this book are the current legal standard that all landowners and loggers are required to follow in order to protect water quality.

Dr. Lorrayne Miralha is an Assistant Professor of Watershed Modeling and Data Analytics at the Department of Food, Agricultural, and Biological Engineering at OSU. Miralha's work integrates water quality data from grab samples and sensor technology to track and uncover dominant hydrological processes and shifts in water chemistry before and after management. Most of her work focuses on big data analytics and machine learning to determine whether shifts in water quality and quantity at scales ranging from watersheds to the national level are driven by climate or anthropogenic factors.