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Photos by Donna Crossland and Nina Newington
Click on images for larger versions
A. In recently cut Sugar Maple stand
B. In Sugar Maple stand at Nimchin Page approved but not yet cut.
ABOUT FORESTRY ROADS
Preventing Soil Compaction and Rutting in the Boreal Forest of Western Canada: A Practical Guide to Operating Timber-Harvesting Equipment
Brad Sutherland, Forest Engineering Research Institute of Canada, March 2003, 52 pages. Soil rutting What is it? Ruts are the trenches or furrows created by machine tires or tracks (Figure 4). Rutting displaces soil and damages soil structure. How does rutting happen? Rutting is caused by repeated passes of equipment, for example when a skidder goes back and forth over the same skid trail. If soil strength is low however, as in the case of saturated soils, rutting can result from one pass of a skidder or feller-buncher. Why is it bad? Figure 5 shows how rutting displaces the soil and causes changes to the soil structure. It explains how rutting can impede root development and soil drainage. Ruts in a wet depression can indicate that compaction has occurred in moist soils nearby. Ruts create an unsightly visual impact in a natural landscape. Which soils are rutted most easily? Rutting occurs most easily on medium-to-fine textured saturated soils, and on organic soils with a well- decomposed surface organic layer.
French Mill Brook Watershed: Best Management Practices (BMPs): Forestry
West Hants Regional Municipality. 2007. 14 pp
Woodlot Management Home Study Course Module 11: Roads and Trails: Planning it Right from the Start
Unfortunately, the NS Woodlot Management Home Study Course modules are no longer openly available online as they were up to a couple of years ago.
This particular module explains forest road-building comprehensively in plain English with diagrams etc. Now, what is publicly available seems to be restricted to A Quick Guide to Woodlot Roads (2 pages). From the intro material in this module:
“Most of us have, unfortunately, seen examples of erosion in the woods such as washed out roads, trails and ditches, deep ruts, silty streams and wetlands filled with mud. Silty water running along ditches and into streams and ponds can ruin water quality and destroy wildlife habitat. A muddy wetland may no longer support the ducks, frogs and the many other plants and animals who lived there. Siltation may reduce the oxygen available to wetland plants and fish.
“Control of surface runoff is by far the most important aspect of road construction both for the road itself and the environment. If the erosion is serious enough, the road may become impassable. Like a chain, a road is only as good as its weakest link.”
FOREST ROAD CONTRACTING, CONSTRUCTION, AND MAINTENANCE FOR SMALL FOREST WOODLAND OWNERS
by Brian W. Kramer. Nov 2001 Posted on NSWOOA website.