<p>The Ethiopian highlands are one of the most degraded regions in the world. Soil erosion is a major issue in most of the watersheds located in northern and Northeastern Ethiopia highlands due to its topographic complexity, insufficient land cover, inappropriate land uses, poor land management techniques, and high rainfall variability which is the major limiting factor for agricultural production. The common challenges for agricultural production in the highlands of Ethiopia are moisture deficits and water availability<b>.</b> The moisture deficit is the biggest limiting and the greatest challenging factor for sustainable agricultural development in Ethiopia. Irrigation is one of the solutions to reduce moisture deficit problems in Ethiopian highlands. Irrigation from dry period flow (base flow) for agricultural development offers several advantages when compared with surface water harvesting. However, recurrent drought associated with land degradation has a significant influence on water availability in the dry periods resulting in the drying up of the stream base flow. Limited base flow makes the highland farmers travel long distances in search of water for different purposes. Different interventions were implemented in most parts of the highlands including the Northeastern highlands of Ethiopia to combat the water deficit problems and enhance dry period flows. Soil conservation measures are the most common techniques recommended for converting excess rainwater(runoff) into soil moisture and groundwater reserve to achieve sustained base flow in the dry season. Despite the huge amount of implemented soil and water conservation structures on the highlands, the hydrological responses to land management practices are not yet quantified and are not well-documented. As hydrologic responses depend on land use/cover, watershed morphology, the scale of the watershed, watershed treatment, and rainfall pattern, a site-specific study is important to be conducted in the Northeastern highlands of Ethiopia. This research was conducted to evaluate hydrologic responses to soil and water conservation measures on two paired micro-watersheds. The result of the statistical analysis indicates that higher base flow was recorded in the treated micro-watershed. Hence, watershed treatment contributed to improving groundwater recharge and sustaining base flow in the dry season. Thus, implemented soil and water conservation measures positively affected the dry season base pattern and negatively influenced wet season base flow. It can, therefore, be concluded that watershed treatment is a good strategy to convert rainfall to groundwater reserves and sustain dry season flow for further use in times of water shortage.</p>