Adverse Road Impacts and PRC Solutions

Forest Roads Cause Serious Impacts to Aquatic Ecosystems; These Impacts Can be Reduced

Roads have numerous widespread, pervasive and, if left untreated, long-lasting biological and physical impacts on aquatic ecosystems that continue long after completion of construction. (Angermeier, Wheeler and Rosenberger 2004). Roads increase surface water flow, alter runoff patterns, alter streamflow patterns and hydrology, and increase sedimentation and turbidity.   Roads are the main source of sediment to water bodies from forestry operations in the United States. (US EPA National Water Quality Inventory: 2000 Report. EPA-841-R-02-001, August 2002)  Road construction can lead to slope failures, mass wasting and gully erosion. Road crossings can act as barriers to movement for fish and other aquatic organisms, disrupting migration and reducing population viability.(Schlosser and Angermeier 1995). These impacts are compounded by chemical pollutants, such as salt and lead from road use and management, that enter streams via runoff. Most of these adverse effects are persistent and will not recover or reverse without human intervention. 

Road gully on federal forest near Sucker Creek, Southern Oregon. Photo by C. Frissell, PRC

The techniques for road remediation are well established, agreed upon and readily available. (B. Weaver, E. Hagans and E. Weppner, Pacific Watershed Associates. Upland Erosion Inventory and Sediment Control Guidance, California Department of Fish and Game, March 2006).

Review a PRC bibilography listing scientific articles that address the aquatic impacts of roads. 

Download a PRC publication discussing the usefulness of road density as an indicator of human impacts across the landscape.

Along with being good for aquatic ecosystems, in February 2010, The Wilderness Society released a briefing memo showing the carbon sequestering benefits of revegetating the unused roads system across the United States.

PRC's Goal is to Reduce the Adverse Effects of Roads on Rivers

PRC's current work focuses on four key policy issues:

1) What is PRC's vision for the management and restoration of forest roads?
2) How can we increase public awareness of the environmental impacts caused by roads, so that we can ensure proper funding to address this problem?
3) How can we ensure strategic, timely decisions are made to address the road system?
4) Are roads problems being adequately addressed by the state forest practices programs that establish roads standards for nonfederal forest landowners? Recent lawsuits under the Clean Water Act in California and Oregon indicate that the answer is no, and seek greater accountability from forest managers for the water quality degradation caused by direct discharges of sediment from logging roads.

PRC is also working directly on the ground to remedy adverse road problems through the Sucker Creek Watershed Restoration Partnership.

Forest Road Management: PRC Recommendations

What Needs To Change on the Ground?

PRC offers the following recommendations to reduce the impacts of forest roads on aquatic ecosystems across the landscape:

• Refrain from new road construction except when a new road segment is necessary to replace a larger network of more harmful roads.  Even a new "temporary" road causes significant problems, despite claims that the road is only temporary. (Read an article on this subject).
  
• Disconnect from the stream network roads that cannot be removed or decommissioned.
• Repair or remove the roads most harmful (currently or potentially) to aquatic ecosystems, but only after prioritizing the landscape.
• Prioritize watersheds where road densities are relatively low (less than 2-3 miles per square mile in the West) and biological values are relatively high.
• Target two discrete and equally important concerns: preventing chronic sediment delivery to streams from ongoing erosion problems and averting increased risks of landslides.
• Carefully execute road restoration such that the long-term benefits of the treatment far exceed short-term negative impacts of soil disturbance.

What Policy Changes are Needed?

PRC is developing a suite of policy recommendations pertaining to roads which include:

• States should adopt as policy the Pacific Watershed Associates guidelines for prioritization and public assistance of road restoration of private and state forests. These guidelines have been recently adopted in California.
• Increase state and landowner accountability for compliance with water quality standards under state forest practices rules by establishing appropriate performance standards and timelines for road disconnection from streams, imposing effluent limitations on direct discharges to streams through general or individual road discharge permits, increasing road impacts monitoring, providing targeted landowner grants and incentives, and stepping up enforcement of road-related rules and associated water quality standards.

• The Forest Service should fully implement, and the BLM should adopt and implement, the 2001 Forest Service Roads Rule. Reallocate federal lands funding from highly subsidized and ecologically harmful activities toward full implementation of the 2001 Roads Rule and other road restoration activities.  Click here to read more about our work on the 2001 Roads Rule.  Click here to read more about our efforts to secure more federal funding for road remediation projects.

• Authorize and fund road restoration projects independent of timber harvest under the Healthy Forests Restoration Act and other federal and state legislative or administrative initiatives that claim forest and rangeland restoration as a goal.