Transportation Management

Explore the problems and solutions associated with transportation management in riparian areas by clicking through the slides using the slide-navigation buttons () below.

The Problem

Well-Planned vs Poorly Planned Roads

Poorly Planned and Maintained Roads
Poorly planned and maintained roads can harm riparian areas and streams by removing riparian vegetation, disconnecting the river from its floodplain, channelizing and straightening the stream, intercepting ground water or subsurface flows, accelerating streambank erosion, degrading fish habitat, and deteriorating water quality and quantity. Gravel and dirt roads can put sediment into streams that can smother trout eggs. Paved roads like highways can cause problems by disconnecting river from its floodplain and channelizing and straightening the stream.

Transportation systems provide many benefits and opportunities and, if properly located on the landscape with well-designed drainage features, can remain stable for years with negligible effects on riparian areas. The key is to think before you build. Fixing a bad road is much harder and much more costly than doing things right from the beginning.

The Solutions

Before a Road is Built

Road Densities in the Jocko Watershed

Before a Road is Built
Solutions to road problems begin even before a road is built by asking the right questions. These include:

• Is the road even needed?
• Can it be built as a temporary road and then permanently closed after it is no longer needed?
• Are there alternative routes that exist or could be developed?
• Is there another location for the road or crossing that would minimize the impacts to the stream or riparian area?
• Is access needed year-round?
• What types of vehicles require access?
• Can we afford to maintain the road once it is built?

Building and Maintaining Roads

Road Densities in the Jocko Watershed

Building and Managing Roads
If a road is already in place, or if it is determined a new road is needed, engineers and planners can:

• Always strive to reduce road density (the miles of roads per square mile). When a new road is built, close other roads that are no longer needed.
• Minimize the number of stream crossings.
• Design bridges and crossings so they have minimal impacts on stream hydrology.
• Identify opportunities to relocate roads out of the floodplain.
• Restore cutoff meanders that allow for the stream to dissipate its energy.
• Stabilize and retire roads that are no longer needed, and mend and maintain roads that are needed and remain in use.

The Benefits

Productivity

Increased Forage
Healthy riparian areas are more productive since abundant water, shelter, and forage translate into more fish and wildlife and better production for livestock producers.

For example, the graph at left shows how a well-managed riparian area produced three times the forage of a degraded floodplain. Forage is important, but so is cover and water and all three increase dramatically under good management.

Less Destructive Floods

Less Damage
Meandering streams with healthy riparian areas can reduce flood damage. A well-vegetated floodplain slows flood waters and better enables it to absorb water. This reduces stream power and stream damage during floods. A straightened channel that has been overgrazed is a recipe for serious flood damage.

More Water

More Water When We Need It
We can't change how much rain and snow falls, but we can affect how much stays to water riparian vegetation, livestock, and wildlife, and how much flows in streams for fish.

Flooding is one way streams bank water. When a stream with healthy riparian vegetation overtops its banks, the water saturates the floodplain and raises the water table. Then in late summer, fall, and winter, when stream flows are naturally at their lowest, that groundwater flows back into the stream.

Poorly managed riparian areas can cause runoff to occur over a shorter time period and produce higher peak flows. That means less retention time for water to soak into the floodplain, which means less groundwater flowing back into the stream during late summer, fall, and winter when fish, wildlife, and people need it most.

Fish and Wildlife

Fish and Wildlife
One of the greatest benefits of healthy riparian areas is a diverse and vibrant wildlife community and healthy native fishery. Riparian areas are crucial to fish and wildlife. It is estimated, for example, that approximately 80% of our wildlife species—everything from birds to mammals—depend on riparian areas for all or part of their lifecycle. The more a riparian area is degraded, the fewer resources there are for wildlife (food, cover, nesting and denning places, travel corridors, etc.) and the greater the chance that some species will disappear from an area.

More Stable Channels

More Stable Channels with Natural Shapes and Sizes
Riparian vegetation reduces the horsepower of a stream by slowing water down through friction. A three-inch-deep rootmat resists erosion up to 20,000 times better than bare-soil streambanks. Deep-rooted grasses, forbs, brush, and trees stabilize stream banks and play a major role in defining channel shape and size (lower left).

Well-vegetated streams tend to be narrow and deeper than streams with degraded riparian zones. Without roots to hold things together, the cohesive nature of streambanks breaks down, and the stream becomes wide and shallow (lower right).

Livestock Management

The Problem

Swipe for Next Slide or Use Navigation Bubbles Above

Well-Planned vs Poorly Planned Roads

Poorly Planned and Maintained Roads
Poorly planned and maintained roads can harm riparian areas and streams by removing riparian vegetation, disconnecting the river from its floodplain, channelizing and straightening the stream, intercepting ground water or subsurface flows, accelerating streambank erosion, degrading fish habitat, and deteriorating water quality and quantity. Gravel and dirt roads can put sediment into streams that can smother trout eggs. Paved roads like highways can cause problems by disconnecting river from its floodplain and channelizing and straightening the stream.

Transportation systems provide many benefits and opportunities and, if properly located on the landscape with well-designed drainage features, can remain stable for years with negligible effects on riparian areas. The key is to think before you build. Fixing a bad road is much harder and much more costly than doing things right from the beginning.

The Solutions

Swipe for Next Slide or Use Navigation Bubbles Above

Before a Road is Built

Road Densities in the Jocko Watershed

Before a Road is Built
Solutions to road problems begin even before a road is built by asking the right questions. These include:

• Is the road even needed?
• Can it be built as a temporary road and then permanently closed after it is no longer needed?
• Are there alternative routes that exist or could be developed?
• Is there another location for the road or crossing that would minimize the impacts to the stream or riparian area?
• Is access needed year-round?
• What types of vehicles require access?
• Can we afford to maintain the road once it is built?

Building and Maintaining Roads

Road Densities in the Jocko Watershed

Building and Managing Roads
If a road is already in place, or if it is determined a new road is needed, engineers and planners can:

• Always strive to reduce road density (the miles of roads per square mile). When a new road is built, close other roads that are no longer needed.
• Minimize the number of stream crossings.
• Design bridges and crossings so they have minimal impacts on stream hydrology.
• Identify opportunities to relocate roads out of the floodplain.
• Restore cutoff meanders that allow for the stream to dissipate its energy.
• Stabilize and retire roads that are no longer needed, and mend and maintain roads that are needed and remain in use.

The Benefits

Productivity

Increased Forage
Healthy riparian areas are more productive since abundant water, shelter, and forage translate into more fish and wildlife and better production for livestock producers.

For example, the graph at left shows how a well-managed riparian area produced three times the forage of a degraded floodplain. Forage is important, but so is cover and water and all three increase dramatically under good management.

Less Destructive Floods

Less Damage
Meandering streams with healthy riparian areas can reduce flood damage. A well-vegetated floodplain slows flood waters and better enables it to absorb water. This reduces stream power and stream damage during floods. A straightened channel that has been overgrazed is a recipe for serious flood damage.

More Water

More Water When We Need It
We can't change how much rain and snow falls, but we can affect how much stays to water riparian vegetation, livestock, and wildlife, and how much flows in streams for fish.

Flooding is one way streams bank water. When a stream with healthy riparian vegetation overtops its banks, the water saturates the floodplain and raises the water table. Then in late summer, fall, and winter, when stream flows are naturally at their lowest, that groundwater flows back into the stream.

Poorly managed riparian areas can cause runoff to occur over a shorter time period and produce higher peak flows. That means less retention time for water to soak into the floodplain, which means less groundwater flowing back into the stream during late summer, fall, and winter when fish, wildlife, and people need it most.

Fish and Wildlife

Fish and Wildlife
One of the greatest benefits of healthy riparian areas is a diverse and vibrant wildlife community and healthy native fishery. Riparian areas are crucial to fish and wildlife. It is estimated, for example, that approximately 80% of our wildlife species—everything from birds to mammals—depend on riparian areas for all or part of their lifecycle. The more a riparian area is degraded, the fewer resources there are for wildlife (food, cover, nesting and denning places, travel corridors, etc.) and the greater the chance that some species will disappear from an area.

More Stable Channels

More Stable Channels with Natural Shapes and Sizes
Riparian vegetation reduces the horsepower of a stream by slowing water down through friction. A three-inch-deep rootmat resists erosion up to 20,000 times better than bare-soil streambanks. Deep-rooted grasses, forbs, brush, and trees stabilize stream banks and play a major role in defining channel shape and size (lower left).

Well-vegetated streams tend to be narrow and deeper than streams with degraded riparian zones. Without roots to hold things together, the cohesive nature of streambanks breaks down, and the stream becomes wide and shallow (lower right).