ORV Management Practices Manual: Strategy 8

Strategy 8.	Rehabilitate Closed ORV Routes
Tactic 8.1	Restore Substrates
Purpose	Assist recovery of former ORV routes through restoration of substrates.
Description	Fill material from trail berms is redeposited in ruts to restore substrates to their pre-use configuration.
Costs to ORV Visitors	Low. Visitors are unaffected by restoration work.
Costs to Management	High. Route restoration work is expensive, requiring staff, heavy equipment, and fill material (locally available or purchased).
Effectiveness	Moderate. High management costs may prevent an adequate level of restoration. Long-term effectiveness of substrate restoration work is unknown.
Comments	Substrate restoration work can only be done during the driest seasons (late winter and spring). Many areas requiring work are remote and difficult to access. Research indicates that natural processes act very slowly to erode ORV route berms and fill in ruts (Deuver 1986). Restoration work on closed ORV routes would speed the recovery process.

Strategy 8.	Rehabilitate Closed ORV Routes
Tactic 8.2	Restore Vegetation
Purpose	Assist recovery of former ORV routes through restoration of vegetation.
Description	Native vegetation from adjacent off-route areas or from off-site sources can be planted on former ORV routes to accelerate the recovery process.
Costs to ORV Visitors	Low. Visitors are unaffected by restoration work.
Costs to Management	High. Route restoration work is expensive, requiring staff, equipment, and vegetative stock (locally available or grown).
Effectiveness	Moderate. High management costs may prevent an adequate level of restoration.
Comments	Vegetation restoration work may not be effective during the drier season. Many areas requiring work are remote and difficult to access. Research suggests that natural unassisted vegetative recover occurs relatively quickly so assisted recovery work may not be necessary (Deuver 1986).