I know that I'm perhaps being over-optimistic here that I can change this situation, but I'd like to see the terms used correctly. Please help spread the word.
Deactivated roads are roads where some sort of treatment has been made so that activate travel is made difficult. This can be through methods such as putting large waterbars across the road (to aid water drainage so the broader surfaces of the roads aren't accidentally eroded) that are too large for vehicles to traverse properly, or perhaps by putting a large deactivation ditch (sort of like a giant waterbar) across the entrance to a road or road system, to prevent access.
In contrast, roads that have been reclaimed have usually been torn up with excavators or other machinery, and may also have had large amounts of debris (slash, stumps, additional dirt) pulled onto them, to "reclaim" them to a state similar to what would have been in place before the road was built.
I suppose that one could say that reclamation is a type of extreme deactivation. Deactivation is not, however, the same as reclamation. It's sort of like the truism that all Toyotas are cars, but not all cars are Toyotas. Or maybe that's a bad analogy.
ANYWAY, here are two photos to illustrate the differences. First, a photo of a ditch dug at the front of a road to deactivate it. Note that with a minimal amount of work, a piece of heavy equipment could fix this deactivation ditch and the road would become usable again.
Further down the page is a photo of a reclaimed road. Turning it back into a usable road would require almost as much effort as had been used to create the original road in the first place.
I have links underneath each of the two photos to bring you to a much larger (2700x1800 pixel) version of each photo. The ones visible on this page are intentionally downsized so as not to mess with the dimensions of the message board.
DEACTIVATION:
Deactivation Photo in High Resolution: http://www.replant.ca/graphics/deactivation.jpg
RECLAMATION:
Reclamation Photo in High Resolution: http://www.replant.ca/graphics/reclamation.jpg
PS: Pay attention to the spelling. Reclaiming (verb) a road. Reclaimed (verb or adjective) road. Reclamation (without the I before the M) is the proper spelling of the noun. Did you know that the verb "to reclaim" has its roots from the French, meaning "to protest"?? As in, "I protest that the forester has reclaimed this road before we planted the block, making it more dangerous for us to travel upon."