Roads are not good for streams and rivers in forests. They intercept the natural flow of water off a slope and channel it into drainage ditches, often straight into streams.

So, instead of slowly infiltrating into the ground, runoff is concentrated to send sudden floods of sediment-laden water into the stream. Forest roads can fail dramatically, sending landslides and debris torrents downstream at a greater frequency than ever would have occurred naturally.

Re-establishing Natural Patterns

In the Ellsworth Creek Preserve, The Nature Conservancy is removing unnecessary roads in certain areas to discover how that improves the health of the watershed. We’ve also trained a crew from the adjacent Willapa National Wildlife Refuge to aid in our cooperative road-decommissioning efforts.

“We’re re-establishing the natural drainage patterns and stream channels,” said Tom Kollasch, Willapa Bay program director for the Conservancy.

This summer marks a big boost in the Conservancy’s road-decommissioning work – we will remove about two-thirds as many miles of road this summer as have been completed in the past five years.

The Future of Ellsworth Creek Preserve

This work is part of a long-term experiment in the 8,000-acre Ellsworth Creek Preserve. The Conservancy is testing three different techniques to improve conditions in forests that were once logged.

In one part of the preserve, we’re removing roads and restoring the natural drainage functions. In another part of the preserve, we’re thinning stands of second-growth trees to emulate the structure and function found in old forests. In a third part of the preserve, we’re leaving the forest alone to see what recovery occurs naturally.

Nature picture credits (top to bottom, left to right): Photo © Jocelyn Ellis/TNC(Ellsworth Creek Preserve); Photo © Robin Stanton/TNC (Tom Kollasch); Photo © Tom Kollasch (road removal at Ellsworth Creek preserve)