A unit of Lasting Forests evolving since March 30, 1999
A Total Forest Management Plan and Wildland Management Decision Support System
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Roads, Access, and Wildlife Issues - Notes

Reshaping Land Surface Immediately after mining, road building or other major form changes are made the reshaping and grading process will begin to prevent unnecessary erosion of the site. In backfill operations all black soil (coal mining) and toxic materials will be buried at least 4 feet deep. Limestone will be mixed with toxic materials to help neutralize them. All large rocks will also be buried.

Grading will be done to return the area to contours matching the desired use of the land. Agricultural crops, industrial sites, residential sites, and some types of recreational lands will be graded to be relatively level. Steeper areas will be acceptable for pastures, woodlands, wildlife and some recreation. During grading, the movement of the soil will be kept to a minimum to prevent compaction. Final grading will be done only when the soil is dry (for this same reason). Bench areas (as will some mining) will be sloped slightly inward to the land to prevent rainfall runoff on the outslopes. After the grading is complete, no spoil piles or depressions will remain. The soil will then be compacted just enough for stabilization.

Email Mon, 06 Dec 1999 from James Henderson HDR Engineering, Inc. Charlotte, NC 704-338-6739

Since I submitted my question a few weeks ago pretaining to wildlife/roadway interactions, I have received a number of emails asking for summaries of the data I received. Here's the list of information that I have received to date.

Dr. Daniel Leedy did pioneering work on wildlife-highway interations at the Urban Wildlife Institute in Shepardston, WV.

Beier did some work on cougars living in an urban matrix. I have a friend that did her graduate work on bears crossing the trans-Canada highway and the major railway line,

Beier, P. 1993. Determining minimum habitat areas and habitat corridors for cougars. Conservation Biology. 7(1):94-108. (urban)

Beier, P. and S. Loe. 1992. A checklist for evaluating impacts to wildlife movement corridors. Wildlife Society Bulletin. 20:434-440.

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Dr. R. Gerald Wright and a graduate student named Pedivillano did some work on wildlife and roads. There was some work done on caribou and oilfield roads and infrastructure in Alaska. I did work on grizzly bears, caribou and moose and the denali park road in AK.

A. Yost, yost_andrew@yahoo.com

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I remember that wildlife overpasses were constructed about 15-25 years ago in Warren or Hunterdon County, New Jersey when I-287 was constructed. You might look there for any studies prior to the construction or affects on wildlife movement since I-287 was built. If NJ-DOT doesn't have any sources, someone at Cook College, Rutgers University in New Brunswick, NJ might know.

Roger P. Barr, Project Engineer, Bovis Construction Corp., 4515 Falls of Neuse Road, Suite 300, Raleigh, NC 27609, Office Phone: 919.877.4126 email: Roger.Barr@Bovis.com

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Vehicle Collision Mitigation Measures.url>> http://www.dot.state.ak.us/external/hq/mat/projects/moose.htm

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I would check on the effects of the Alaska Pipeline. The thought that animals will pass under an artifical structure may not be accurate. If you would like assistance with the literature search and wildlife portions of your project, please let me know.

Joseph P. Sullivan, Ph.D., Ardea Consulting, (215) 295-2575, www.ardeacon.com, birdtox1@ardeacon.com

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Wenatchee FSL Research.url
http://www.fs.fed.us/pnw/wenlab/research/

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Good sources are available at British Columbia Highways, Alberta Highways, and Banff National Park. Another good source is the Florida DOT. Florida has hosted three conferences on wildlife ecology and transportation and the most recent abstract is available from them. Florida DOT is located in Tallahassee. The Publication number is FL-ER-73-99

I would try Andreas Seiler, a PhD student in Sweden, who has been working on this exact subject for a number of years. His email is andreas.seiler@nvb.slu.se

Grimso Wildlife Research Station
S 730 91 Riddarhyttan, Sweden

and the station's phone is 46 581 69 7301
or 46 581 69 7300
Fax is: 46 581 69 7310

Peter Jordan, Dept. of Fisheries and Wildife, University of Minnesota, 1980 Folwell Avenue, St. Paul, MN 55108, (612) 624 9218 paj@FW.UMN.EDU

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Both Florida Game and Freshwater Fish Commission and the agency in North Carolina [NC Wildlife Resources Commision] partnered with both states' respective DOTs to build these types of "bridge/highways" to allow wildlife to pass. According to the report, Florida found them successful in reducing panther mortality from vehicle collisions in the Everglades. I think NC is just beginning to design these types of underpasses where bear populations are dense. You might try talking with the Chief of the NC Wildlife Resources Commision. He is the scientist NPR interviewed.

NC Wildlife Resources Commission http://www.state.nc.us/Wildlife/

Ashley Rossi, Extension Wildlife Associate, School of Foresty and Wildlife Sciences, 108 White Smith Hall, Auburn University, AL 36849, 334-844-9244 arossi@aces.edu

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Article from Terry Seyden USFS clippings in 2000:

About the writer Paige Straley is a Charlotte environmental engineer and consultant. He also has a degree in zoology. He took the photographs for this story from an ultralight aircraft. They carry one person, cruise at 60 mph, and do not require a private pilot's license. They give the environmentalist an oustanding platform from which to observe nature.

The ugly gashes in the mountainsides are dirt roads. Logging operators cut them to remove timber from the forest. The problem is that the roads may remain open and ugly years after logging is through.

Though the North Carolina Forest Service asks loggers to spread grass seed and stabilize these roads, the view from above clearly shows this doesn't work very well. The soil has been densely compacted by heavy trucks. Often the abandoned roads become popular playgrounds for four-wheel drive vehicles. Vegetation doesn't re-claim the land. Ruts and erosion do.

In the worst cases, these roads can take up as much as 15 percent of a hillside area. Through erosion, a logging road can give up as much as 200 tons of sediment per surface acre per year.

Where does it go? Down the hillsides to choke valley-bottom streams. In the South Mountain Park area, streams that are pristine trout water inside the park become heavily sedimented as soon as they emerge from it.

The North Carolina Forest Service is handicapped in dealing with these problems. Its main tool is a set of technical rules called Best Management Practices, which are issued under the Sedimentation Pollution Control Act.

Through these, loggers are exempted from provisions of the act that would require them to obtain permits, submit plans for approval and submit to inspection. Under the Best Management Practices, no notification must be given before work begins. No permits or plans are required. No on-site inspection is required when logging is over.

The system assumes that logging operators are adhering to the rules in good faith. The forest service spot-checks compliance, and will inspect if a violation is reported.

Landowners have 30 days to rectify any violations that are found. If violations remain after 30 days, the matter is turned over to the Land Resources Division of the North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources. This agency enforces the provisions of the sedimentation act, and can cause fines to be levied.

Assistant Forester Michael Good of the Lenoir Forest Service office estimates that only about half of landowners plant for reforestation after logging. And even when they do, problems can follow.

Examples can be seen in areas near South Mountain Park. Hundreds of acres are covered with pines that are all the same age. Not an oak or hickory can be seen.

The effect of these monoculture forests on small mammals and game animals is not good, according to Terry Sharp, small game project leader for the North Carolina Wildlife Commission. Squirrels, for example, depend on different food sources in different seasons. For a good portion of the year, pines supply nothing. Squirrel populations plummet, therefore, in pine-only stands.

Problems are caused for other species as well. Tree plantations are nearer to being farms than forests. They are densely planted for maximum yield.

When they mature, the canopy shuts out much of the sunlight, and the understory dies away. Food and shelter for many species are eliminated. Entire populations of plants and animals dwindle.

Better logging and reforestation methods are readily available. In national forests, for example, the U.S. Forest Service has the tools necessary for proper management.

The Uwharrie National Forest in Montgomery County is a good example. It is logged steadily, but doesn't have the ravaged appearance of the hillsides near South Mountain Park.

And revegetation programs feature diversity. Habitat planning to accommodate a variety of plants and animals is a part of each logging agreement.

"We are required by law to include species conservation and habitat preservation in our replanting schemes," says Tom Horner, a ranger in the Uwharrie.

Similar expertise is available to private landowners through the state forest service, which has good programs and professional personnel, and through private consultants. Landowners can easily get help in devising low-impact harvesting plans, and proper approaches to reforestation and habitat enhancement.

"We enjoy doing that kind of work," Good says, "but don't get a chance to do it as often as we'd like."

This state of affairs is sad and ironic in North Carolina, which sometimes is known as the cradle of forestry. Many of the techniques that enable forsests to be used as renewable resources were developed here.

Quality practices in logging and forestry are particularly important in western North Carolina, because of the sheer expanse of forest land there. In the 21-county area west of a line drawn between Mount Airy and Hendersonville, about eight acres out of 10 are classified as timberland by the state forest service. Three-quarters of this is privately owned.

How much of this logging goes on? No one precisely knows. The forest service knows what volume of timber is being processed, because mills are required to file reports. But there is no reporting on the number of acres of land being disturbed.

As much as we may chafe at regulation, the public interest cannot be protected without it. At a minimum, permits for cuts over a few acres should be required. Just a requirement for notification would make a difference.

Ideally, road-making and road-closure, skid trails, utilization of steep slopes, habitat protection and replanting would all be regulated by permit.

This would leave one serious difficulty. Enforcement of a permitting system would require labor by the forest service, and the service has a limited number of personnel.

But surely progress can be made beyond current arrangements in which much logging is essentially unregulated. Perhaps forest service pesonnel could be helped if, say, there were some system for permitting private citizens to share in rewards for reporting violations that were successfully prosecuted.

The natural environment is our common heritage. It is very much in the public interest to preserve, to care about soil conservation and to be careful about the purity of water supplies. The onset of development and the increasing demand for forest products are placing heavy demands on natural resources that can't be replaced if they are destroyed.

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See also http://www.defenders.org/habitat/highways/new/sub/translawguide.html

and http://www.defenders.org/habitat/highways/secondnature.html

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Last revision January 17, 2000.