Is steep slope logging a slippery slope to increased soil erosion?

Oblique and overhead images of a portion of the area and tether roads. Tether roads are 3-4 m wide and roughly 15 m apart. Note the unlogged forest patches surrounding emergent springs and ephemeral headwater streams and the mid-slope and lower slope haul roads. Points A and B help orient the images.  The orthoimage in the bottom figure was generated from 1896 20MP images.
 

Current forest health and wildfire concerns have prompted an increase in salvage logging and fuel reduction treatments across western North America. However, the extent and location of candidate management areas are constrained by multiple economic and policy restrictions.

On U.S. Forest Service land, for example, ground-based harvesting is generally prohibited in designated wilderness and roadless areas and on steep slopes, sensitive soils, riparian and wetland zones, and wildlife habitat.  

With new tethered-logging equipment, there is now potential to allow harvesting on steeper slopes, so long as environmental concerns like soil erosion are limited. A new Forest Service study is the first North American assessment to measure the impact of tethered logging on hillslope erosion. The researchers also address increased interest in tethered logging operations as a way to expand fuels treatment into areas where it is currently limited by steep slopes.