My thesis research involved examining riparian canopy covers impacts on water temperature, and the policy and laws governing riparian timber harvest buffers and suitable salmonid habitat. I quantified the effect of riparian canopy cover removal on stream water temperature in the Lower Klamath River watershed in Northern Humboldt County, and examined how the policy which governs these buffer zones both effects and is affected by scientific study. By using a before/after control/impact experimental riparian thinning design, combined with grounded theory methodology, I quantified the impact that riparian management has on water temperatures, and examined how well policy allows for riparian heterogeneity, adapts to new scientific study and consensus, and what steps can be taken to encourage Adaptive Resource Management on private industrial timberland in California.