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Private Forest Landowners are Making a Difference
with Improved Road Maintenance
The Forests & Fish Law requires that all state and private forest roads be brought up to new forest roads standards by 2016 through Road Maintenance and Abandonment Plans (RMAPs). The new standards address all aspects of construction and maintenance, including road locations, stream crossings, erosion control, and drainage. The goal is to minimize sediment in streams, and remove barriers to fish passage. Prior to RMAP standards, landowners emphasized protecting the integrity of road systems from erosion by channeling road runoff into ditches, away from the road surface. Now forest landowners focus on protecting water quality for fish habitat by channeling road runoff onto the forest floor so that sediment will be filtered out before the water re-enters the stream. Port Blakely Tree Farms discusses how they have implemented the new RMAP standards, and the difference it has made both economically and environmentally.
More Results:
Port Blakely Tree Farms has successfully improved and updated the roads on their land. Port Blakely’s accomplishments are indicative of the ongoing improvements private forest landowners are making to minimize the impact of forested roads on the environment.
Improving forested road systems on private land
Large private forest landowners each develop a Road Maintenance & Abandonment Plan (RMAP) to upgrade and repair road systems where needed. A total of 57,442 miles of roads have been inventoried and 22,900 miles of roads identified as ”needing improvement“. Based on the most recent data from the Department of Natural Resources’ RMAP Staff Group Report (see page 4) through July 2009, about halfway through the program, 2,621 miles of road have been decommissioned and 16,195* miles of road have been brought up to standard.
Small family forest landowners are required to submit checklists instead of a full Road Maintenance and Abandonment Plan (RMAP). Since 2004, family forest owners have submitted 8,804 RMAP checklists with their forest practices applications to identify how they will maintain and improve roads. Read the Forest Practices Habitat Conservation Plan 2010 Annual Report (see page 54).
*16,195 miles represents 71% of the 22,900 miles of roads initially identified as needing improvement. Since this estimate was for the period ending in 2009, the current proportion of roads improved is higher.
Protecting natural stream systems
One of the resource objectives of the Forests & Fish Law is to disconnect road drainage from streams in order to limit sediment being delivered to streams. Independent studies have found that, with the improvements made to date, only 11% to 12% of roads have the potential to deliver sediment to the streams. Private forest landowners have improved forested roads in line with the Forests & Fish Law in order to provide appropriate storm water drainage systems to prevent surface runoff from delivering too much sediment to streams.
An example is the Adaptive Management Roads Sub-Basin Scale Effectiveness Monitoring Study (see page vi). The purpose of this research project is to determine if road characteristics that affect runoff and sediment delivery to streams are improving through time and the extent to which roads meet the identified performance targets. An average of 11 percent of the road network was hydrologically connected and assumed to deliver water and sediment to streams or wetlands.
Letting science lead the way: Reducing the impact of forest roads
A recent study (see page 1), designed and compiled by a third party environmental researcher, found that 82% of the entire length of forest industry roads have either a low delivery potential or are hydrologically disconnected from stream crossings.
The results of the study show that 73% of forest roads on industrial lands have a low potential to deliver runoff and sediment to streams because the roads occur on flat terrain such as valley bottoms or ridge tops that do not intersect stream channels or drain into a wetlands. Of the remaining 27%, 6% are unused, overgrown or decommissioned roads.
Of the 21% of road length that could potentially threaten streams, improvements have been made by landowners to fix about half (9%), leaving only about 12% of the roads hydrologically connected to streams at the time of this survey. The remaining roads are in process of being fixed through the RMAP program, with a completion date in the Forests & Fish Law of 2016.
Removing barriers to fish passage
In addition to minimizing sediment delivery to streams, private forest landowners are removing barriers to fish passage. From 2001 through June 2009, landowners have removed 3,141 barriers (56%) of the 5,580 fish passage barriers included in their RMAPs. This is more than half-way to the goal of 100% completion by 2016. See page 55 of the full report.
From 2001 through June 2010, large private landowners invested $131 million in forest road improvements and anticipate another $132 million to improve fish habitat. The result is the removal or repair of more than 3,100 barriers to fish migration, which restored in nearly 1,600 miles of historic fish habitat. During this time, Washington State cost-share programs for small family forest owners have resulted in the repair of an additional 232 barriers and 500 miles of reconnected habitat, bringing the total to nearly 3,400 barriers removed and the restoration of 2,100 miles of historic fish habitat.
Letting science lead the way: New culvert designs aid in fish passage
Researchers are testing mock up culvert installations for their fish friendly design in this Culvert Test Bed study. Fisheries biologist Phil Peterson measures how well cutthroat trout move through culverts under various flow conditions. The research was commissioned by forest landowners from Oregon and Washington and is using a facility owned by the Washington Department of Transportation. Forest landowners use these results to help determine whether culverts installed in their road systems allow fish to gain access to their natural freshwater habitat in forested streams.
Video courtesy of NCASI
