Vol. 2 No. 1 (2018): Summary of the Forests and Water Workshop, November 1–2, 2016, Kelowna, BC

Julia Jones, Russell Smith, Georg Jost, Rita Winkler, Dave Spittlehouse, et al.

With population growth, climate change, and increasing forest disturbance, understanding the complex relationships between forests and water is key to sustaining future forest resources, aquatic habitats, and water supplies. Research into forest and water interactions continues to expand our understanding of ecohydrological processes and our ability to assess the hazards associated with natural and human-related forest disturbances. In July 2015, 170 presentations at the 4th International Conference on Forests and Water described new research related to forest disturbances and hydrologic processes in a changing environment (a portion of which were recently published in the journal Ecohydrology http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/eco.v10/issuetoc).

This conference stimulated considerable local interest in establishing an annual workshop focussed on translating research results into operational guidance. e first of these workshops (November 2015) attracted over 100 participants and focussed on the effects of forest disturbances and climate change on  hydrologic response, streams, and water quality. In November 2016, a second workshop was held to address topics directly related to watershed assessments in community-, fisheries-sensitive, and timber-valued watersheds.

This article provides short summaries of presentations at the 2016 Kelowna workshop, highlighting key messages and providing contact information for further reference.