Application of a Soil Sensor System to Monitor Forest & Military Machine Trafficking.

Forest machine trafficking in the course of forest management activities has an impact on soil resources typically described in terms of the tabulation of soil surface disturbance classes, measurement of bulk density and soil strength responses or a combination of the two. The former represent an indirect measure of machine impacts. Similarly, military vehicles can impact and disturb soils. The ability to directly predict the potential impact of forest and military operations on local soil resources would require knowledge of compaction forces exerted by machines in the course of management activities. Site specific management prescriptions could be developed to reduce the likelihood of excessive compaction through the development of data focused on the interaction of machine and soil systems. A sensor system was assembled to monitor machine pressures that consisted of a bulb and hydraulic hose connected to a pressure transducer and data logger inserted to a specific soil depth. The sensor system was initially tested to determine the maximum amount of pressure that could be withstood under unconfined conditions and subsequent evaluations performed in forested sites subjected to machine trafficking. Current investigations are focused on development of a model to predict soil changes in response to forest machine trafficking monitored by soil sensors in two regional settings. Future applications of the sensor system to predict machine impacts on soil resources will be explored.