Effectiveness of best management practices that have application to forest roads: a literature synthesis

Abstract

Literature describing the effectiveness of best management practices (BMPs) applicable to forest roads is reviewed and synthesized. Effectiveness is considered from the perspective of protecting water quality and water resources. Both paved and unpaved forest roads are considered, but BMPs that involve substantial engineering are not considered. Some of the BMPs included are commonly used on roads; others are used less often. The synthesis focuses on quantitative BMP effectiveness and descriptions of processes or characteristics that influenced the effectiveness. Qualitative results and observations not supported by data are excluded. Most of the effectiveness results describe sediment losses and sediment delivery, but there is also some coverage of chemicals used as BMPs, such as dust palliatives and soil conditioners. Chapters and subheadings are based on how or where protection is provided, or type of BMP. The final chapter provides information on research needs and potential direction of BMP implementation in the future. Although there remains a great need to quantify BMP effectiveness more rigorously across more physiographic, topographic, climate, and soil conditions, the data provided in this synthesis give road and watershed managers and landowners a starting place for evaluating and selecting BMPs.

Stream Mercury Export in Response to Contemporary Timber Harvesting Methods (Pacific Coastal Mountains, Oregon, USA)

“…The lack of increase in stream particulate THg and MeHg or TSS concentrations in clear-cut catchments is in contrast to what has been observed in other studies, where logging has been shown to increase catchment erosion and suspended sediment concentrations. , The absence of a response of these parameters in our study may result from the forestry BMPs that were used to reduce erosion, such as limiting new road construction, effective use of road prism drainage techniques, using cable logging where the felled trees are moved across the site suspended by a cable, and the practice of leaving a thick layer of slash materials covering the soil after harvesting. , These BMPs are widely utilized as part of forestry operations in the US and elsewhere; however, it is also not uncommon for slash to be removed or burned on-site. The removal of woody biomass, including stump harvesting, has gained interest in recent years for use as a renewable fuel or other products. , As such, the results from our study are believed to be representative of commonly applied contemporary forestry techniques; however, forestry operations not utilizing these BMPs may have larger influence on Hg mobilization and other water quality end points.…”

“…41,54 The absence of a response of these parameters in our study may result from the forestry BMPs that were used to reduce erosion, such as limiting new road construction, effective use of road prism drainage techniques, using cable logging where the felled trees are moved across the site suspended by a cable, and the practice of leaving a thick layer of slash materials covering the soil after harvesting. 42,55 These BMPs are widely utilized as part of forestry operations in the US and elsewhere; however, it is also not uncommon for slash to be removed or burned on-site. The removal of woody biomass, including stump harvesting, has gained interest in recent years for use as a renewable fuel or other products.…”

“…Best Management Practices (BMPs) in forestry are aimed at reducing the environmental impacts of harvest operations and can represent a wide range of measures such as leaving nonharvested buffer zones along streams, installing water diversion bars/ditches to reduce the impacts of road construction, harvesting during seasons where impacts would be reduced, and decreasing postharvest erosion by leaving woody debris on-site. 41,42 While previous research has been conducted on reducing the impacts of sediment loading and thermal impacts on streams from harvested catchments, there remains limited investigation into how contemporary forestry practices can impact Hg cycling and watershed transport. 22,23 In this study, we sought to evaluate how forestry operations in mountainous regions of the Pacific Northwest influenced Hg cycling.…”

Efficiency of Different Anti-Dust Agents in Reducing Dust Emission from Forest Road and Deposition on Leaf Surface

“…The proportion of the volume of antidust agents to the amount of water that dissolves were 5%, 10% and 20% for the sugar cane molasses (Brown andElton 1994, Gotosa et al 2015) and 2%, 4% and 6% for polyacrylamide (Sadeghi et al 2016, Kristian Aase et al 1998, McLaughlin et al 2014. The ratio of the weight of bentonite to the weight of the materials added to it was 1%, 2% and 3% (Edwards et al 2016). The treatment rates were 2-2.5 liter per square meter (Addo et al 2004).…”

Determining the habitat fragmentation thru geoscience capabilities in Turkey: A case study of wildlife refuges

“…The planning, design, and implementation of roads for forest management are drafted in forest management plans (Akay et al 2012;OGM 2008). However, haphazard applications of the same procedures to all forest lands could further worsen erosion and sedimentation, subsurface water dispersals on slopes and edge phenomenon (Araujo et al 2014;Al-Chokhachy et al 2016;Edwards et al 2016) and create unforeseeable new ones in the longer term (Fahrig 2002;Laurance and Balmford 2013). One of the most understood and studied side effects of roads is habitat fragmentation (Ortega and Capen 1999;Heilman Jr. et al 2002;Liu et al 2014;Amin and Fazal 2017), which involves the partitioning of an uninterrupted piece of land, a continuous habitat, into smaller pieces through either natural or anthropogenic processes (Skole and Tucker 1993;Forman et al 2002).…”