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Water quality laws require regulatory agencies to identify the beneficial uses streams and rivers, and to determine the pollutants that may impair those uses. The amount of pollutant that can be tolerated for a given beneficial use is the total maximum daily load (TMDL). In forest watersheds, sediment is generally the greatest pollutant. Sediment sources include surface erosion from forested hillslopes and roads, mass failure, and channel erosion.

One of the questions managers are seeking to answer is how to relate forest practices to sediment loads. The purpose of this paper is to present a tool that can predict daily sediment delivery to forest streams, and to discuss the implications of its application.