Evaluating forest road management practices for reducing sediment production and transport from forested watersheds

摘要

Construction and maintenance of access roads are considered the predominant source of sediment entering surface waters in many forested areas. Four different road management practices (continuous roadside benra, non-continuous roadside berms, a graveled road surface, and a non-graveled road surface) were studied over a two year period to determine their effectiveness in reducing sediment production within forested watersheds in the lower coastal plain of North Carolina. The results of this study indicate that the presence of access roads, under these four management practices, within these flat forested watersheds have little impact on the sediment concentration of the drainage waters at the watershed outlet. In comparison to other studies, the sediment concentrations at the watershed outlets in this study are similar to the sediment concentrations of similarly drained forested watersheds that have no access roads within the drainage basin.