Utilizing woods roads for wildlife...

Following the previous post concerning the size of a habitat project, the shape of it isn't necessarily important either. Woods roads may wind throughout a piece of property offering excellent opportunities to improve habitat. And if edge is so important to wildlife, then woods roads offer considerable more edge to be utilized than do food plot fields.
Woods roads may include anything from long driveways (well traveled) to old skid roads to newly opened paths between tracts. Depending on how much traffic the road gets, measures can be taken utilizing different methods and plants to prevent erosion and stay away from such traditional erosion control plants like tall fescue and orchardgrass, which are not beneficial to wildlife.
Habitat improvements may include daylighting the roads to let in more light, feathering the edges to create cover and aid w/ the daylighting, planting food plots along or on road beds, or simply light disking (just before spring green-up) every other year to stimulate early successional growth from the existing seedbank.
Plants need to be shade tolerant plants like white clovers and wheat. The wheat (thickly planted) acts as erosion control as well as serving as excellent brood cover. Wheat also germinates quickly to prevent erosion allowing the clovers and other forbs and grasses to take hold.
It is still best to utilize all the steps needed to develop a quality food plot, i.e. soil testing, mowing, selective herbicides, etc. But if you can provide enough sunlight ( about 4 hrs/day) onto these roadbeds, they can be excellent sources of habitat improvement throughout the property w/o clearing land for food plots and sacrificing valuable timber.