What works best in rewilding a former logging road in our woodlands????,,,,,Is it letting nature take its course or "recontouring" it using large machinery and returning the road to its original physical state?............The data indicates that in just 10 years after recontour, key soil properties like soil organic matter, carbon, and nitrogen were not different from never-roaded reference areas........... By comparison, abandoned roads proved to have very little soil nitrogen or carbon........... Carbon and nitrogen are critical nutrients that control forest productivity and are necessary for making forest ecosystems more resilient to climate change......What is perhaps more important than soil is water...... Even after 50 years of regrowth, abandon roads remain compacted............. During storm events, abandon roads store very little water in the soil and produced more runoff, while recontoured roads behave just like natural ground

'Ground Breaking' Research in Road Restoration
y2y.net

When you have the opportunity to restore an old, abandoned logging road what do you do with it? Let nature take its course and allow the vegetation to grow over it? Or do you dig it up and give nature a boost? And which one of these practices will restore the area to its original state?

These are the questions Y2Y's US Conservation Director, Rebecca Lloyd, is asking in her research dissertation, and her results are staggering.

Digging is expensive. Is it worth the cost?

Lochsa Road Reclamation

There are two commonly used road recovery practices in forest management. Abandon a road and let the vegetation grow back on its own; or 'recontour' it using large machinery and return the site to its original physical state.

In the past ten years, the United States spent millions of dollars attempting to reclaim legacy logging roads that were no longer needed. Many resource managers chose to recontour a road because from past experience the practice seemed to provide many benefits; but they had no research to compare the two methods.

Resource managers were under pressure to show that recontouring produced ecological benefits that justified the greater expense. This spurred them to ask Rebecca to investigate the issue.

Accelerating restoration by thousands of years

Comparisons of road restoration treatments show dramatic differences.

"Preliminary results," explains Rebecca, "suggest that recontouring methods return major ecological functions to the same state as never-roaded reference areas. This means recovery is accelerated by thousands of years."

10 Years Later

The difference may, in fact, be in the ground. The data indicates that in just 10 years after recontour, key soil properties like soil organic matter, carbon, and nitrogen were not different from never-roaded reference areas. By comparison, abandoned roads proved to have very little soil nitrogen or carbon. Carbon and nitrogen are critical nutrients that control forest productivity and are necessary for making forest ecosystems more resilient to climate change.

What is perhaps more important than soil is water. Even after 50 years of regrowth, abandon roads remain compacted. During storm events, abandon roads store very little water in the soil and produced more runoff, while recontoured roads behave just like natural ground.

Implications for Forest Managers

Rebecca's work has the potential to be one of the most influential studies on road recovery long-term forest management practices. As climate change stresses our forested ecosystems through reduced snow packs and more rain-on-snow events, restoration will become an increasingly important solution to mitigate the consequences.

Rebecca reminds us that roads can have devastating consequences on habitat, wildlife and watersheds.

"Our communities depend on these forested areas to provide water, reduce the number of floods, and provide high quality fish and wildlife habitat. By using one road recovery method over another," she continues, "we can effectively give nature the boost it needs to regain its natural state and alleviate the potential effects of climate change."