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Rural road ecology course to offer students real-world training

Ecology course

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UNIVERSITY PARK — Not many people think about the roads they use on a daily basis, but Penn State’s Center for Dirt and Gravel Road Studies does.

The center, which provides education to minimize the impact of unpaved roads and trail on the natural landscape, is implementing a new course on rural road ecology and maintenance this fall for students in majors associated with environmental management and protection.

The course, which will be hosted jointly by the Environmental Resources Management Program and the Department of Ecosystem Science and Management, will give students an understanding of the interaction of natural systems with unpaved and low-volume paved roads in order to economically maintain roadways with minimal impact on the surrounding environment.

Potholes, bumpy roads, tires ruts, excessive dust or an eroded surface not only make for an unpleasant driving experience, but they also degrade the environment and atmosphere that many rural communities are built around, said Chad Voorhees, a forest program specialist at the Pennsylvania Department of Conversation and Natural Resource.

In Pennsylvania there are more than 25,000 miles of dirt and gravel roads, which provide access to residences, agriculture or forest operations and recreational points of interest, Voorhees said. To continue to provide reliable access to these roads that people enjoy and to maintain the integrity of the surrounding ecosystem, understanding proper maintenance is important.

The importance of proper maintenance can be easily overlooked after construction is complete, especially without the necessary knowledge and a trained eye,” he said. “Dirt and gravel roads, if not properly located, constructed or maintained, can alter adjacent forest hydrology, soils and related organisms, as well as be a source of sedimentation in our streams, impacting aquatic organisms and on down the chain.”

The current lack of training on dirt and gravel roads was one major reason that Steve Bloser, the director for the Center of Dirt and Gravel Road Studies and Eric Chase, a researcher and instructor at the center, designed the course.

This is one of the only road courses available at Penn State,” Chase said.

He said that the center worked with Penn State’s Environmental Resources Management Program and Department of Ecosystem Science and Management to host the course because most of these graduates will enter jobs where they will encounter or become responsible for roads on an almost daily basis. Graduates are put at a disadvantage in the job market if they aren’t trained on how to maintain these roads.

The recent expansion in dirt, gravel and low-volume road funding in Pennsylvania has led to more focus on road issues and more job opportunities for graduates in disciplines related to resource management,” Chase said.

The course will offer students real-world training that was previously unavailable. Chase said that students will look at examples of road maintenance projects and the successes, failure and lessons learned, so that they are prepared when they start their careers.

The course includes a field trip to Penn State’s Stone Valley Forest to look at potential, in-progress and completed road projects. The final project for the course will require that students design a site layout to address road drainage and improvements on one of the forest roads.

After completing the course, the students will be Environmentally Sensitive Maintenance certified under Pennsylvania’s Dirt, Gravel and Low Volume Road Maintenance Program.

This certification is of great interest to potential employers in government and industry in the commonwealth of Pennsylvania,” said Chase, “as it recognizes a level of knowledge that is sought after and highly valued.”

The enrollment to date includes students from forestry ecosystem management, environmental resource management, civil engineering, biorenewable systems and environmental systems engineering, indicating a need for this specialized training across disciplines, Chase said.

Patrick Fox, the head of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, said, “The availability of this course to students of civil and environmental engineering and other related disciplines opens new avenues for learning and cross-disciplinary linkages that will foster new job opportunities and help build healthy, vibrant communities.”