Ford of large stream with poor road surfacing, poor road construction, and no rock or geotextile material in the ford.
Early stages of repair of stream channel near ford.
Ford rebuilt with rock approaches.

Note that the old pipe is half the size of its replacement.
Geotextile fabric is used to create a more stable base on the top of the pipe crossing.
Controlling access and traffic is critical to successfully stabilizing roads.

Stream crossings at MIESF take many forms. Some crossings are permanent roads, while others are in place for limited access such as pedestrian traffic or fire control access.

When the forest was first acquired, many of the crossings had been abused and were eroding to the point of being non-functional. Erosion of stream crossings often result in large amounts of sediment entering waterways. Sediment degrades the water quality of the streams, causing damage to aquatic life, and is a major source of non-point source pollution in the piedmont region of North Carolina.

Some of the forest's fords were also so severely damaged by trespass and poor design that the streams had to be rechanneled and the bank restabilized.

Not all streams are crossed with fords. Some utilize more conventional crossings such as culverts. Culvert crossings are used on the forest for primary access roads and roads that will be used on a regular basis. To be properly used, a culvert should be sized to the flow of the stream that it will be used to cross. Often, landowners use culverts that are too small to carry the storm flow that occurs in the stream. Improperly sized culverts can cause the road to wash out or erode the headwall of the culvert, which leads to accelerated erosion. This was the case on one of the forest's primary access / haul roads.