R is for Roads

Roads as considered here are woodland roads and provide access into the forest for a variety of reasons.  They may be the way you get to a cabin, for wildfire prevention, to facilitate commercial operations or just a way to get more quickly away from where you are to where you want to be.  As someone who has walked into the forest and then driven the same route it is amazing how fast you can get some place in a vehicle, especially when it involves going up hill.

Roads being a more or less permanent feature on the land need to be thought about before their construction.  That thinking needs to comply with the legal requirement of the Forest Practices Act and a responsibility to the sound forest stewardship that provides social, environmental and economic benefits.  R is for roads is more of a mental placeholder than a guide. For that guide you want someone who has been there before and has experience with designing, construction (or the administration of construction) and maintenance.

To give you some idea about forest roads the Pacific Northwest Extension Publication PNW 641 “Managing Woodland Roads, A Field Guide” published in 2013 by Oregon State University is excellent.  The authors and technical editors Steve Bowers and Paul Adams provide the basics of what you need to be thinking about without spinning out of control with the details. When I last looked the guide is available for purchase for $11 from OSU Extension here:  https://catalog.extension.oregonstate.edu/pnw641