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Forest Roads
"There are few more irreparable marks
we can leave on the land than to build a road... Our overriding
objective is to work with local people to provide a forest road
system that best serves the management objectives and public uses of
national forests and grasslands while protecting the health of our
watersheds." -- Forest Service Chief Mike Dombeck,
1998
Almost all visitors to the national forests use
forest roads. Roads not only make our Nation's wildlands accessible,
but also shape the wildland experience for most forest visitors by
determining where they will go and what they will see. Even
wilderness areas on our national forests would be generally
inaccessible without roads leading to trailheads.
Changing Forest Road
Uses
Much of the existing forest access was built
over the last 50 years for timber harvest and log removal. In the
decades after World War II, logging traffic tripled, peaking in
1990. But when timber harvests on the national forests declined in
the 1990's, logging traffic plunged to 1950 levels. Logging now
accounts for only one-half of 1 percent of all forest road use. By
contrast, recreational forest road use has soared to 13 times its
1950 rate, dwarfing logging traffic. Driving for pleasure is the
single largest recreational use on Forest Service managed lands,
constituting 35.8 percent of all recreation in 1996. In summer,
recreational drivers on the national forests account for 13.6
million vehicle-miles per day. The outlook is for recreational road
use to grow by an additional 64 percent by the year
2045.
Forest Road Issues
Few natural resource issues in recent years have
attracted as much public scrutiny as the management of the forest
road system. Though less costly to build and maintain than most
public highways, forest roads can have adverse impacts on
watersheds, especially if poorly maintained. Few marks that we leave
on the land are more lasting than the roads we build. Yet roads are
needed for the goods and services that Americans expect from their
national forests. Managers today must wrestle with several
complicated forest road issues:
- Funding shortfalls
. Roads that were originally built to accommodate
logging trucks are increasingly carrying people seeking outdoor
recreation opportunities. A $10.5 billion reconstruction backlog
exists for the most highly traveled roads. Sixty percent of all
forest roads are currently not maintained to the public
safety and environmental standards for which they were
built.
- Environmental damage
. Poorly maintained roads can promote erosion and
landslides, degrading riparian and wetland habitat through
sedimentation and changes in streamflow and water temperature.
Roads can also block fish and wildlife passage, modifying animal
behavior and preventing healthy regeneration.
- Substandard roads
. Many roads on the national forests do not meet
current standards for safety and environmental protection. A
complete inventory of substandard roads is needed to identify
unneeded roads for decommissioning.
- Environmental damage
. Poorly maintained roads can promote erosion and
landslides, degrading riparian and wetland habitat through
sedimentation and changes in streamflow and water temperature.
Roads can also block fish and wildlife passage, modifying animal
behavior and preventing healthy regeneration.
- Substandard roads
. Many roads on the national forests do not meet
current standards for safety and environmental protection. A
complete inventory of substandard roads is needed to identify
unneeded roads for decommissioning.
- Roadless areas
.
Building a road in a roadless area has an irreversible impact. Of
the 62 million acres of national forest land classified as
roadless in the 1970's, 22 million acres have been designated as
wilderness, 6 million are recommended for wilderness, and the
remaining 34 million are designated for other uses. Only 9 million
acres in roadless areas are designated as suitable for timber
harvest, and about 1 million of these have been entered for timber
harvest. There is strong public concern that no new roads should
be built in the remaining roadless areas.
Vehicles Per Day on Forest
Roads
|
1950 |
1990 |
1996 |
Timber harvest |
14,000 |
42,000 |
15,000 |
Recreation |
137,000 |
1,315,000 |
1,706,000 |
A New Forest Road Agenda
Clearly, we need a new approach to managing
forest roads. We need sufficient funding to restore necessary roads
to a safe, environmentally sound condition and to close and
stabilize unnecessary roads. We need to protect and manage
cautiously the relatively few remaining roadless lands. Our new
forest road emphasis in the agenda will improve access for all
forest road users while protecting healthy ecosystems through four
primary actions:
Actions
- Determine the best way to provide all
Americans with access to the national forests.
- Accelerate the pace of decommissioning
unneeded substandard roads that damage the environment.
- Selectively upgrade forest roads.
- Seek additional funding sources for the
transportation system.
Modified: 10/14/1998 Per: Carl
Holguin |