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What is the Forest Service's
"Roadless" Policy Really Preserving?
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Americans expect their national forests
to be managed and protected for future generations. They
expect access for recreation and fire prevention, and
they expect access to reach their private lands. Above
all, Americans expect their national forests to be
healthy, green, full of fish and
wildlife.
Unfortunately, the public is assured of
none of those things in the most recent Forest Service
proposal to regulate so-called “roadless” areas. In a
policy that confounds both science and common sense, the
Forest Service is aiming to permanently lock-up nearly
60 million acres of our National Forest System for the
exclusive use of non-motorized
recreationists.
Benign neglect will not restore
healthy forests. According to the Forest Service, our
national forests are experiencing the worst health
crisis in their history with 65 million acres - one
third of our National Forest System - at catastrophic
risk to wildfire, insect infestation, and disease. Yet
rather than embracing a scientific approach to manage
those lands, the Forest Service proposal would wall-off
60 million acres and doom them to a cycle of overstocked
stands, disease and insect infestation, and catastrophic
wildfires. Devastation like that witnessed recently in
Los Alamos, NM is the inevitable
result.
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