• Disturb natural watersheds.

• Remove vegetation coverage.

• Change the topography and soil structure

• Remove natural habitat for wildlife.

• Provide a barrier to movement and spread of plants and animals.

• Affect animal behavior.

• Provide further access to sensitive areas off the main highway.

• Pose a visual disturbance to the landscape.

Typically, after drilling operations have been completed or suspended, the roads are frequently ‘remediated’. This removal is intended to allow both the recovery of the lands to a pre-use condition and minimize additional access. Topographical recovery is relatively easy. Initial vegetation begins to grow back, but the adverse long term effects of construction on the social use of the land, the habitat disturbance and on the stability of the lands themselves have not yet been fully defined. Currently, there are no well defined objective engineering or environmental measures of the real impacts of roads or the time frame for the environment to recover (e.g. plant diversity to be re-established, soils to return to their original structures). For example, a recent fire that occurred in the Padre Islands Park exposed a path of a former access route used last in the 1990’s. This particular route had supposedly been ‘reintegrated’ back to its pre-use condition, at least topographically. The fire made it clear that the road path never recovered to its ‘pre-use’ condition. The Disappearing Road challenge extends beyond its utility for oil and gas access roads. The concept is of interest to a number of U.S. agencies such as the Department of Energy and Department of the Interior, for sustainable development of other natural resources in a manner that protects the environment beyond what restrictions and regulatory barriers can provide.