The forested, 640-acre McKenna Hill Drop Zone (the Site) at the Fort Benning Military Reservation in Georgia was cleared in 1988 for paratrooper training. Trees were harvested, stumps were grubbed and buried, and most of the Site was graded to flatten hilltops and fill in ravines. These activities resulted in mixing of the nonharvested vegetation, litter, duff, and topsoil with subsoil, leaving extensive bare areas. Because no efforts were made to establish a vegetational cover following the grading operations, the exposed soils were subject to severe erosion. Deep gullies developed, and eroded sediments accumulated in lowlands and in adjacent forest stands, causing damage to trees and understories.