BMPs / Forests and Water / Blog

Water is essential for life. Streams and other water systems supply communities with the resources they need to meet the water demands of their citizens. This includes water to drink, wash clothes and bathe. Plants, trees and wildlife also need water to survive.

Forests play an important role in providing us with clean water. An estimated 80 percent of our nation's freshwater resources originate from forests that cover about one-third of the United States.

Forests provide a number of essential economic, social, and environmental functions in addition to supplying us with the cleanest water of any land use. They absorb rainfall, refill groundwater aquifers, slow and filter stormwater runoff, reduce floods, and maintain watershed stability and resilience.

Best Management Practices are the principle means by which we protect our water resources while managing our forests.  They are voluntary conservation practices designed to provide an economical way of protecting soil and water resources, two key elements necessary for growing a healthy, sustainable, and productive forest.

In Texas, most of our freshwater resources originate in the eastern portion of the state, making our forests and wetlands a critical factor in meeting our water needs.  However, tremendous population growth is placing unprecedented demands on our water resources across the state, making stewardship of our water resources crucial to ensuring their sustainability for generations to come.

Texas A&M Forest Service established the Water Resources Program to help protect, maintain, and enhance the quality and quantity of our State's water resources.

  Quick Facts

• Texas has approximately 191,228 miles of streams and rivers, more than 8 million acres of inland and coastal wetlands, and more than 3 million acres of reservoirs and lakes.
  
  
• The Texas A&M Forest Service Water Resources Program has prevented 91,520 tons of soil from eroding off East Texas forests and 12,387 tons of soil from reaching East Texas streams annually.
  
  
• By 2060, the demand for water in Texas is expected to increase by 27 percent, from about 17 million acres-feet to about 21.6 million acre-feet.