Unpaved roads are prevalent in rural areas and can drive water quality degradation via sediment inputs. Excess sediment loss from poorly maintained unpaved roads to adjacent waterways, especially during storms, can block sunlight to the water column, decreasing primary productivity and increasing contaminant and nutrient concentrations. This is particularly relevant to Arkansas, where 85% of county roads are unpaved; however, few studies have explored the impacts of unpaved roads in rural watersheds dominated by pasture. Here, we sampled Brush Creek (Arkansas) to understand local (i.e., type of road crossing) and watershed-scale (i.e., land cover/use) controls on sediment loss from unpaved roads. We collected monthly baseflow samples and four opportunistic storm flow samples for total suspended sediments (TSS) at bridge, culvert, and direct stream crossings beginning in February 2024. Surprisingly, preliminary results suggest mean TSS loads downstream vs. upstream of road crossings are comparable, especially at bridge and culvert sites, indicating these types of road crossings may not be critical sources of TSS to streams. In contrast, TSS loads at direct stream crossings are greater upstream, as road crossings may allow sediment to settle out when vehicles are not driving across. At the watershed scale, we found that TSS load increases during storms as the total length of unpaved roads in a subwatershed increases (R2=0.29, p<0.05). Finally, we documented higher TSS loads during stormflow than at baseflow (0.15 ± 0.03 kg day-1 ha-1 vs. 0.01 ± 0.00 kg day-1 ha-1, p<0.01). Our findings indicate that direct stream crossings, specifically, are key contributors to sediment export in rural watersheds. As such, BMP implementation should focus on direct stream crossings to effectively protect downstream water quality in regions with extensive unpaved road networks.