Logging roads and skid trails can take up a considerable part of a forest stand. Meanwhile, comprehensive research addresses reducing the impact of heavy forest machinery on forest soils.
Nevertheless, the impacts of machine-supported timber harvest are not restricted to alterations of soil physics exclusively on skid trails. Altered light and nutrient regimes may modify habitat conditions for organisms throughout the respective forest stands. The interactions between the skid trails and the areas not directly impacted by the machinery depend on diverse factors, which vary on a small spatial scale. Against the background of ongoing climate change and its effects on regional weather patterns, it is to be expected that the already complex interactions between forest habitats and the influences of timber harvesting will become even more complex.
If the effects of logging roads on forest stands need to be reassessed in the course of changing climate and weather conditions is a main question addressed by a pilot study conducted by the Chair of Soil Ecology (https://uni-freiburg.de/unr-boden/) of the University of Freiburg. The Landespflege Freiburg (Freiburg Landscape Research) supports soil ecologists in the development of a research design and with project and data management.
The project is planned to run for three years and is financially supported by the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (BfN).