Winter road management effects on roadside soil and vegetation along a mountain pass in the Adirondack Park, New York, USA

In 2003-2005, we resurveyed and expanded plots surveyed in 1985 to examine the cumulative impact of road salt (sodium chloride) and sand along a two-lane highway in the Adirondack State Park in New York State (USA). Annual salt applications in the period 1985-2005 ranged from 50 tonnes per centerline-km (1985) to 140 tonnes (2005) and sand applications ranged from nearly zero tonnes (2005) to 325 tonnes (1985). Roadside soils and vegetation were significantly impacted by salt deposition compared to soils and vegetation 30 m and 150 m from the road. Roadside soil contained more sand, less organic matter, had a lower cation exchange capacity, was denser, and retained less water than soils 30 m and 150 m from the road. The concentration of sodium in roadside soils was elevated (103 vs. 44 ppm in soil 150 m from the roadside), and roadside concentrations of plant-nutritive cations were lower than 150 m from the road (roadside Mg, Ca and K concentrations were 0.2, 5, and 1 ppm respectively vs. 23,168, and 30 ppm at 150 m from the road). Along the roadside, paper birch trees (Betula papyrifera) and other woody vegetation present in 1980 were absent in 2004, suggesting that survival and recruitment of paper birch trees was impacted by degradation of soil fertility, deposition of road salt and aerosolization of salt from the roadway. Roadside environmental degradation caused by winter road management has worsened since 1980; revegetation with native salt-tolerant plants may provide some mitigation of the most severe effects. Overall, we conclude that the full extent of roadside environmental degradation caused by winter road management can take decades to manifest, and this may be the case more generally along cold-climate montane roadways.