Tuesday, August 7, 2007: 8:00 AM-11:30 AM
B1&2, San Jose McEnery Convention Center
OOS 8 - Restoring physical and ecological connections in roaded landscapes
Road ecology is a new interdisciplinary study of how roads influence hydrology, geomorphology, and ecosystem processes. Cumulatively, the presence of roads and the human access facilitated by roads leads to ecological effects measurable at several spatial scales. Roads can alter hydrologic patterns, cause stream sedimentation, and affect wildlife behavior and population dynamics; this is of particular concern for roads that cut through habitats of high ecological integrity. Road removal has been used with increasing frequency to mitigate these impacts and to restore public and private lands, and will be the topic of this session. Road removal is defined as “the physical treatment of roadbeds and road systems to restore the form and integrity of associated hillslopes, channels, and landscapes and their related hydrologic, geomorphic, and ecological processes and connections.” The session will synthesize the current state of knowledge of road removal as a form of ecological restoration across landscape, watershed, and site-level spatial scales and propose directions for future interdisciplinary research. At the landscape scale road removal may restore population connections and evolutionary processes. At the watershed scale, we will examine restoration of aquatic habitat and ecological processes and cumulative impacts of roads on geomorphic processes. At the site scale, papers will explore road removal as a tool for restoring ecological connectivity and wildlife and plant interactions. Finally, presentations will present schemes for prioritizing areas for road removal utilizing different methodologies and over varying spatial scales.
Organizer:Adam Switalski, Wildlands CPR
Co-organizer:Fraser Shilling, University of California, Davis
Moderator:Cara Nelson, University of Washington
8:00 AMOOS 8-1Ecosystem management decision support for road system analysis and reserve design in the Sierra Nevada
Fraser Shilling, University of California, Davis
8:20 AMOOS 8-2Linking response of aquatic biota to road restoration activities
Mary Ann Madej, USGS Western Ecological Research Center
8:40 AMOOS 8-3Transitioning among scales: The cumulative effects of roads
Leslie Reid, USFS Pacific Southwest Research Station
9:00 AMOOS 8-4Black bear and other wildlife use of removed roads
Adam Switalski, Wildlands CPR
9:20 AMOOS 8-5Recovery of mixed grass prairie on restored oil access roads
Sara Simmers, University of Minnesota
9:40 AM Break
9:50 AMOOS 8-6Prioritization of road removal based on aquatic ecology
Charles Luce, USFS Rocky Mountain Research Station, Boise Aquatic Sciences Lab, Matthew Dare, USFS Rocky Mountain Research Station, Boise Aquatic Sciences Lab, Bruce Rieman, USFS Rocky Mountain Research Station, Boise Aquatic Sciences Lab
10:10 AMOOS 8-7Multi-disciplinary approaches for successful revegetation of roadsides, roadbeds, and eroding slopes
Vic Claassen, University of California, Davis
10:30 AMOOS 8-8Prioritizing road work to achieve landscape-scale restoration within the Cedar River Watershed, Washington
Todd Bohle, Seattle Public Works, Amy La Barge, Seattle Public Works, Mark Joselyn, Seattle Public Works, David Chaplin, Seattle Public Works

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See more of The ESA/SER Joint Meeting (August 5 -- August 10, 2007)