Monitoring Road Removal on the Clearwater National Forest

The Clearwater National Forest and the Nez Perce Tribe have initiated a road obliteration monitoring project in order to track the effectiveness of an ambitious road obliteration program on the forest. This paper addresses the methods used in level II monitoring of road obliteration on the Clearwater National Forest. The protocols for monitoring are designed to answer questions related to specific treatments. Monitoring results are designed to provide feedback to the obliteration program on treatment effectiveness. Treatments monitored include: general prism treatments (recontour, outslope, decompaction, or abandonment), stream channel treatments (weirs, bank armor and vegetation), cross drain channels, seeded and planted vegetation, and erosion control blankets. Selected 400 m (quarter mile) sections of obliterated road are monitored for each of the first three years, then at five years and at five-year intervals thereafter. Monitoring methods are described in this paper. Some preliminary monitoring results are also presented.