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Findings: Skid Tracks

Findings: Skid Tracks The Standard Logging Agreement states:
"All skidding tracks descending slopes must be dammed with drainage run-offs at frequent intervals immediately after they cease to be in use in order to disperse rain and storm water and prevent soil erosion."
(SLA, Clause 20)

Expediency, however, appears to be the order of the day with the construction of skid tracks. Erosion and instability exemplify virtually all skid tracks on slopes in the study area (more than 80% of the sites investigated). Steep slopes and erosive soils exacerbate the problem on many sites, but the construction and post harvest management of the skid tracks remain the two most dominant areas requiring modification to ensure a dramatic diminution of environmental impact emanating from skid tracks during and after logging operations.

The consistent appearance of serious erosion problems associated with these skid tracks reinforces the proposition of poor location and post harvest management. They provide substantial inputs of sediment into adjacent waterways as well as being major sites for the proliferation of succession retarding secondary species. In particular, the skid tracks and other road verges are the major sites of germination of the rampant vine, Merremia peltata, which appears to be the single most important factor responsible for long term successional deflection and retardation.

Similarly, neither construction, siting or post harvest management of skid tracks conformed to the Code of Practice across much of the logging area. The skid tracks were responsible for the majority of the broad scale sediment inputs into waterways, although major slippages from roads resulted in large point sources of such material. This area of logging management manifestly exemplifies the concurrent economic and environmental costs of poor logging practices. Fuel costs must be high given the proportion of logging coupes bladed by machinery.