1. The forest transportation system is
extensive and diverse; it includes an estimated 380,000 miles
of Forest Service roads. Public roads, such as State and
county roads, and private roads maintained by others on
National Forest System lands, also exist.
a. Approximately one-fourth (22 percent)
of all Forest Service roads serve passenger car
use.
b. Over one-half (55 percent) of all
Forest Service roads are maintained for high-clearance
vehicle use.
c. Approximately one-fourth (23 percent)
of all Forest Service roads are closed to highway use by the
public. Closed roads may be used for a variety of recreation
uses, and for forest administration and
protection.
d. Currently, Forest Service inventories
have identified at least 60,000 miles of unclassified roads
including temporary roads and roads that were never planned,
built, or maintained to safety, service, and environmental
standards. It is anticipated that future inventories will
verify the existence of substantially more miles of
unclassified roads.
e. More than 7,000 bridges on Forest
Service roads exist; three-fourths of these are on the roads
serving passenger car use.
f. In 1998, new construction of Forest
Service roads was 215 miles or .06 percent of the total
Forest Service road system. New construction has trended
downward annually from 2,310 miles in
1988.
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2. While a significant portion of the 192
million acres of the National Forest System is roaded, a
significant and ecologically critical portion remains
unroaded.
a. Some 34.7 million acres are currently
designated as wilderness; approximately 6 million acres were
proposed for wilderness designation in forest
plans.
b. The National Forest System has an
estimated 50 million acres of roadless areas are inventoried
through national roadless area review in the 1970s (RARE II)
or through subsequent regional and local forest planning
activities.
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3. Current funding is inadequate to
maintain all the existing roads to intended safety, service,
and environmental standards to permit efficient and safe use,
while mitigating adverse environmental impacts.
a. The Forest Service has available only
about 20 percent of funds necessary to fully maintain Forest
Service roads to intended safety, service, and environmental
standards. As a result, roads not fully maintained become
restricted to use by high clearance vehicles or are
gated.
b. The backlog of deferred road
maintenance and reconstruction needs on Forest Service roads
is $8.4 billion. This backlog is due to the age of the
arterial and collector roads (three-fourths are over
50-years old), heavy use, and the lack of regular
maintenance.
c. From 1991 to 1997, the Forest Service
decommissioned an average of 2,700 miles of roads per
year.
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