A hydrologic monitoring network was established at the University of Kentucky’s (UK) 6000 ha Robinson Forest in 1971. The result is a 40+ year record of precipitation and streamflow, as well as water chemistry for headwater catchments in eastern Kentucky. These data present a valuable opportunity to evaluate linkages among atmospheric deposition and stream chemistry, the impacts of environmental policy, and effects from nearby land disturbance in the form of surface mining.  A key fact is that, while many of the monitored Robinson Forest basins are minimally impaired, the Forest is surrounded by active surface mining.  Preliminary findings show that the temporal patterns of precipitation-chemistry constituents (pH, sulfate, nitrate, and sum of anions & cations) sampled on Robinson Forest show more variability than those at the closest National Atmospheric Deposition sites which show consistent trends that together indicate a regional improvement in air quality since 1985.  This variability carries over to streamflow, which was evaluated as decadal time steps (1974-83, 1984-93, 1994-2003, 2004-2013) in order to separate the influence of climate (as streamflow volume) and land management effects.  Comparison of the first two decades shows decreases in flow-adjusted sulfate concentration and increases in pH across all basins, reflecting similar changes in local precipitation chemistry.  Each of these changes is attributed to land management effects and is interpreted as implementation of the Clean Air Act (1982).  In contrast, flow-adjusted concentrations of nitrate and major cations  increased between these two decades, correlating with an increase in local surface mining between 1985 and 1995.  However, when the first decade (1974-83) is compared to the most recent decade (2004-2013), pH has decreased in all monitored streams (<6 pH units), and there are differences in sulfate and nitrate concentration trends between the pair of larger (~1500 ha) basins relative to the pair of nested, smaller (~85 ha) basins.  This finding indicates that as this landscape adjusts to ongoing acid deposition, not all parts of the Forest are responding in the same way and small areas of disturbance result in significant differences in streamflow chemistry.