ABSTRACT Mount Diablo State Park exemplifies many other conservation areas where managers balance the dual missions of protecting natural resources while providing public access. Roads and trails that crisscross the park are etched into the geomorphic surface, capturing and redirecting storm runoff, and presenting both a challenge for soil conservation and a consequence of construction and maintenance. We used field mapping, remote sensing, and modeling to assess erosion along the roads and trails in Mount Diablo State Park, which encompasses the headwaters of several urbanized watersheds. The field mapping in 2011 determined that 56% of the assessed roads and trails required either repair or reconstruction to control erosion and that ~67% of the culverts in the park required either repair or replacement. Aerial photography and modeling showed that other erosion (unrelated to roads or trails) preferentially occurred during wet periods, in specific lithologies, and on convergent slopes. Although lithology and climate drive slope-forming geomorphic processes, we found that the road and trail system (1) expanded the stream network with a capillary-like system of rills, (2) catalyzed prolonged erosion, and (3) altered the timing and pattern of sediment yield. In addition to water-driven erosion during wet periods, road and trail surfaces were subject to mechanical and wind erosion during dry periods. Spatially, dry erosion and runoff both conformed with and crossed topographic gradients by following the road and trail network. Road- and trail-induced erosion occurred across a wider range of rock properties and slope geometries than is typical for other erosion. Hence, the roads and trails have expanded the spatial and temporal boundary conditions over which geomorphic processes operate and, due to continual soil disturbance, have accelerated erosion rates. Although road density is a commonly used metric to rank road-related impacts at watershed scales, it misses both spatial variability and the opportunity to identify specific road and trail segments for remediation. We developed a spatially explicit scoring scheme based on actual erosion and the potential for sedimentation of discrete waterbodies. The data were incorporated into the park’s road and trail management plan in 2016.

ABSTRACT The Great Lakes coast contains numerous unstable bluffs underlain by heterogeneous glacial materials consisting of till, sand, and gravel layers, and lacustrine clays. Many of the bluffs are steeper than their equilibrium angles and typically move as slow earth slides or occasional rapid slumps. Such movements develop largely where interlayered sand and clay contain perched groundwater that acts to reduce effective stress during winter months when perched potentiometric surface elevations rise because water cannot discharge through frozen soil. Aerial photograph records dating back to 1938 show that bluffs recede in amphitheater-like depressions followed by "catch up" where headlands between amphitheaters are attacked by other forms of erosion. This bluff recession is particularly pronounced during stages of high lake levels. The erosion control experiment described herein has been designed to determine the manner in which groundwater activity influences the causes and mechanisms of mass wasting on the Great Lakes coasts. Three dewatering demonstration sites were selected, monitored electronically for virtually all movement and cause relationships, and dewatered to demonstrate a potential mitigation strategy other than construction of wave barriers. Erosion activity and dewatering effects were carefully monitored for three seasonal cycles. Results show that (1) dewatering greatly reduces ground displacements during winter months, and (2) bluff movements are almost perfectly timed to, or lag slightly after, the hours when potentiometric surfaces near the bluff face reach their highest elevations during freezing (greatest soil pore pressure) or their greatest rates of surficial discharge (soon after thaw). This field guide project was supported by grants from the U.S. Army Research Office, Terrestrial Sciences Program (Grant 3467-GS) from 1996 to 1999 and the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) from 2000 to 2007, and 2012, through U.S. Senate Bill 227 (National Shoreline Erosion Control Development and Demonstration Program), with support from Western Michigan University (WMU). Additional personnel involved were Alan E. Kehew, Co-PIand, WMU graduate students William Montgomery, Rennie Kaunda, Mark Worrall, Gregory Young, William Bush, and Amanda Brotz. Well and monitoring instrument positions were chosen by R. Chase and designed by Ronald L. Erickson and James P. Selegean, U.S. Army Engineer District, Detroit, Michigan. Well constructions and instrument installations were done by STS Consultants, Chicago, Illinois. This huge project was very smoothly administered by M. Eileen Glynn and William R. Curtis, ERDC, Vicksburg, Mississippi.

Abstract River restoration is a societal goal in the United States. This collection of 14 research papers focuses on our current understanding of the impacts of removing dams and the role of dam removal in the larger context of river restoration. The chapters are grouped by topic: (1) assessment of existing dams, strategies to determine impounded legacy sediments, and evaluating whether or not to remove the dams; (2) case studies of the hydrologic, sediment, and ecosystem impacts of recent dam removals; (3) assessment of river restoration by modifying flows or removing dams; and (4) the concept of river restoration in the context of historic changes in river systems.