Natural recovery of skid trails: a review

Abstract

In recent years, the study of skid trail recovery processes has gained momentum. In this review, 121 studies on various aspects of skid trail recovery were evaluated to determine when, where, and how the dominant factors that influence the process of recuperation occur. These studies were located proportionally in the following forest biomes: temperate (60%), tropical (31%), and boreal (9%). Research focused mainly on soil physical properties to ascertain if there had been evidence of recovery. The majority of studies of a decade or less after abandonment demonstrated that heavily used skid trails had not recovered. On the contrary, lightly used skid trails did present full recoveries over the same time span. Soil recovery tended to occur in medium- to coarse-textured soils in temperate and boreal forests. Considering all forest biomes, the impacts of compaction persisted at least two to five decades after logging operations. The impacts were evident in diminished tree heights and volumes from trees growing on skid trails. The last 50 years of research indicates that skid trails, globally, do recover from compaction, albeit slowly.