The effects ownership pattern on forest road networks in Western Oregon

The pattern of ownership imposed on the forest landscape of WesternOregon defines the boundaries in which differences in jurisdiction, regulation, andland use operate. Road building is controlled by these factors, and in turn has aneffect on the cumulative effects of human utilization of the forest. This studyexamined the differences in road density and slope position between areas withdifferent ownership patterns.
Land ownership pattern can vary according to the size, shape, and mixtureof parcels in an area. The forested lands of Western Oregon have areas with aunique checkerboard pattern, resulting from Federal land grant programs to helpbuild railroads and settle the area in the late nineteenth century. These lands nowhave alternating, one square mile ownership parcels, split between public agenciessuch as the Bureau of Land Management or the United States Forest Service andprivate timber companies. This study used analysis of variance of road density,stream density and the ratio of the two.
A GIS system was used to sample and analyze existing data for BLM andindustrial lands, as well as Forest Service and industrial holdings. Tukey ANOVAtests and parametric statistics were used on randomly sampled areas of eachownership type to find out which ownership types were significantly different fortotal area, and classified by slope position.
The large industrial and large BLM parcels were found to be consistentlydifferent across most slope positions, with higher road densities found on theindustrial lands. The checkerboard of the two was shown to be intermediatebetween to the two. The large Forest Service and checkerboard area were notconsistently different in total density, but they showed difference in thedistribution of roads by slope position. These checkerboard areas had more roadsin valley areas while the large USFS parcels had higher road densities on ridges.