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Document 34 of 110.

July 3, 2000, Monday

SECTION: Editorial; Ed. Final; Pg. 42A

LENGTH: 637 words

HEADLINE: ROADLESS AREAS - THE QUIET POSSIBILITIES

BYLINE: By Cynthia Melcher, Cynthia Melcher is a zoologist with the Colorado Natural Heritage, Program at Colorado State University. Her specialty is avian, conservation ecology.

BODY:

Are there any places left on Earth where you could even imagine true peace and quiet? Every day technology results in yet another way to generate ear- assaulting noise. And with each new gadget, the decibel of sound pollution rises another notch or three.

As an ornithologist, it is my job to study birds. The work entails much listening - often the only means of "seeing" and counting birds. But the air is often filled with so much human-generated racket that I cannot hear nature's voices at all. Even deep in the national forests, stereos, TVs, video games and cellular phones harass my hearing. Shooting and generators further erode my auditory nerves. And then the snowmobiles, dirt bikes, RVs, SUVs and ATVs all grind away at the inside of my head, as well as at the landscape. They shatter opportunities for hiking, back-country skiing, watching wildlife or just seeking solace. Build a forest road and the raid against peace and quiet will follow.

Some people adjust to the loss of peace by forgetting how to listen. Others descend into a dark fear of quiet, which they push away by turning up the volume. Then there are those of us who desperately seek asylum from the tyranny of road-induced noise.

Today, there is only one place in the entire lower 48 states where you could find yourself more than five miles from a road. Our national forests alone contain 380,000 miles of official roads, not including the 60,000 miles of roads whimsically carved by off-road traffic. The national forests of north-central Colorado - Roosevelt, Arapaho, Routt and Pike - where I do most of my work are among the noisiest. Adding insult to injury, national forest roads cost taxpayers a lot more in revenue than they generate, they foul our water supplies with run-off sediments, and they shred wildlife habitat.

But there may be a wave of roadless quiet rolling our way. Last October, President Clinton directed the U.S. Forest Service to draft an environmental impact statement on how the last 50 million acres (a sad one-fourth of 1 percent) of roadless areas in our national forests should be managed. That draft is now open to debate among the American people. Look at it (it's available on-line at http: / / roadless.fs.fed.us) and then speak up about it. The Forest Service is giving us an unheard-of chance to be heard above the yowling of corporate interests that typically dictate the use of our land.

If we ask the Forest Service to set aside the last roadless areas for grizzlies, wolves, native trout and other wildlife that need large, unfragmented tracts of forest and clear streams, I believe it will comply. I think the agency finally understands that we need roadless places for future generations and our collective peace of mind. But write now because the public comment period on the draft impact statement will end July 17. Send your comments to: USDA Forest Service - CAET, Roadless Areas Proposed Rule, P. O. Box 221090, Salt Lake City, UT 84122; or e-mail your comments to: roadlessdeis@fs.fed.us.

The truth is, I would rather seek asylum in the grasslands. I treasure the prairies for their dazzling light, meadowlark song and promise of a vast peace. Unfortunately, that peace is just a dream because the grasslands have been utterly sectioned with roads. Now, all I have are the few road-free forests. Will we let their last vestiges of peace be destroyed too?

I think not. We have the power to turn off the head-pounding noise and corporate whining. We have the intelligence to refuse subsidizing forest roads that never repay us. We have the compassion to leave quality spaces for all species on this planet. We have the voice to insist "Enough already! No more roads in our national forests!" It is, therefore, our human obligation to do these things.

NOTES:
SPEAKOUT

LOAD-DATE: July 5, 2000

Document 34 of 110.


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