Soil moisture recovery after timber harvest cessation on abandoned skid trails after 20 years

Forest soil conservation as a production base during the harvesting and skidding operations is necessary, until the amounts of damage and recovery time of soil characteristics after the operation are minimized. This research was carried out in two districts; Patom and Namkhaneh of Forest Kheyrud in order to assess the environmental impact of slope, traffic and rutting location on soil physical properties and recovery them over 20 years compared with the controls. Fourabandoned skid trails were selected in downward direction and different ages and in each of these skid trails, three traffic classes and in each traffic class, two slope classes were specified. For measuring the soil moisture, sample plots of 10×4 m were located in the treatments. The results showed that in 15-20 year skid trail, soil moisture in slope, traffic and rutting location were not significantly different with control area, but the values ​​were still higher than the control area. Over 20 years of skidding operations, soil moisture was 9.7% lower than control area. However, these differences were not statistically significant. The results indicated that with increasing abandoned age of skid trails, the soil moisture tend to have more recovery rate.