America is a nation of vehicles--nearly 140 million of them are registered every year. It follows that America is also a nation of roads. Our roads are so numerous and extensive that few areas of any size remain which have not been caught in their constantly expanding web. The benefits of roads are obvious--transportation, commerce, convenience. The downside of roads are less well known--erosion, habitat destruction, subsidies, species endangerment. The importance of keeping some lands road-free cannot be understated. They are the last refuges for species from migratory birds to grizzlies, allowing them to survive in an increasingly urbanized, humanized world.

Those areas which have escaped the road grader this long are overwhelmingly on public lands, many within national forests. They exist in spite of efforts to punch roads into and log our last unprotected lands. Those areas which have been opened up have not fared so well--up to 5 miles of roads may be built to accompany the logging of every square mile of forest.

Almost all of our nation's forests have been cut over at least once. On national forest land, the US Forest Service has already paid for over 380,000 miles of roads--that's 8 times as long as our interstate highway system, enough to circle the earth 15 times. And still the government wants to subsidize more roads to log more forests.

Continued road-building in unprotected, unroaded wildlands is a major threat to some of the most important and rare wildlife habitat in the nation. Many diverse species rely on the unique habitat characteristics provided by roadless lands. Large, wide-ranging species like grizzlies and lynx hang on in the western U.S. because they still have some roadless lands to retreat to. In other parts of the country, particularly the east, species as diverse as migratory birds and black bears take refuge from predators in remaining blocks of unfragmented forest.

Roads cut open these natural wildlife refuges, exposing the forest and its inhabitants to human traffic-loggers, hunters, poachers, and recreationalists-and to new competitors and predators which native species are not adapted to. Erosion from roads and clearcuts pollutes streams and rivers, threatening the survival and reproduction of fish which need clean water. Fungi, disease, and insects are spread along roads by vehicles, and 75% of forest fires start along roads.

Our remaining roadless lands are disappearing fast. The first step towards protecting these valuable habitats is to end government subsidies to logging companies to open them up. This subsidy was created when there were fewer roads, more roadless areas, and less knowledge about the importance of unroaded wildlands. The Forest Service cannot maintain the roads it already has, evidenced by a road maintenance backlog totaling more than $440 million, and should not be adding to the problem by building new roads.

When roads are built through roadless areas, the unbroken interior of the forest suddenly becomes the edge of the forest. The forest edge is a much different habitat than the forest interior because it experiences different amounts of wind, rain, and sunlight. Forest habitats along roads are hotter and drier, which changes the types of plants and animals that can thrive there. Plants and animals are also affected by human edge effects: increases in air pollution, soil erosion, noise pollution, and general human disturbance. The edge effects can extend for hundreds of meters into the forest. As more and more roads are constructed, the amount of remaining interior habitat shrinks quickly. If left unchecked, road density can increase until no interior habitat is left, even though patches of forest remain.

The disappearance of interior forest habitat spells disaster for bird species that require interior habitat for survival, such as brown creepers, northern spotted owls, and cerulean warblers to name a few. As the amount of interior forest decreases, the distance between suitable interior patches grows. Subpopulations of interior-dependent non-migratory birds can be separated from the rest of their species, leading to inbreeding and possible extinction. Migratory birds, many of which rely on interior forests as rest stops on their trips to and from the tropics, have more trouble finding safe habitat to rest in.

A danger to both migratory and non-migratory birds comes from the invasion of new predators and competitors. Cowbirds, an edge parasite, lay their eggs in the nests of other birds, which usually raise the young cowbirds at the expense of their own young. Edge predators including raccoons and cats gain increased access to birds and their nests. The barred owl is following the roads and clearcuts to the west, where it now competes with the beleaguered spotted owl.

Large, reclusive, far-ranging predators reside in wildernesses where human contact is minimized. Grizzly bear, wolverine, lynx, and mountain lion survive in or can be reintroduced into parts of the western U.S. because of the existence of unbroken forest. The gray wolf, an interior-dependent species, is finally recovering in large patches of continuous forest after decades of overhunting and trapping. These species need tracts of wilderness up to hundreds of thousands of acres in order to survive. Grizzly bears, for example, require up to 520 square miles of habitat each. Brown bears and Florida panthers cling to remaining unbroken forests in the east.

Roads confine the movement of reclusive predators to increasingly limited sections of forest. Grizzly bears, for example, are reluctant to cross or even approach roads, so their habitat shrinks every time a new road is built. Bears are quick to learn that humans-hunters, poachers, recreationalists, and loggers-follow roads, and contact with humans often results in dead bears killed for sport, profit, or defense of life. Roads allow hunters, both licensed and unlicensed, access to otherwise hard-to-reach areas that provide cover for low density predator populations. The grizzly bear is especially vulnerable to hunters while hibernating, an additional reason why remote areas for shelter, protection, and denning are a necessity.

The barrier presented by roads cuts these species off from crucial food supplies and from members of their own species. Without usable corridors between ranges, populations become reproductively isolated, which may lead to inbreeding and possible extinction of the species.

Smaller predators, such as tree-dwelling marten and fisher, also appear to be sensitive to impacts from roads. And some studies suggest that some prey species, like elk, may be more dependent than previously thought on remote refuges from humans. Road densities in national forests in the Pacific northwest are currently more than twice the level which biologists have shown causes declines in elk and grizzly populations.

Species without a healthy fear of roads aren't much better off. Over one million animals per day are killed crossing roads. Florida panthers, of which only 50 remain, find their greatest enemy on the roads surrounding their habitat-motor vehicles are the leading killer of this endangered species. Some bears and other animals whose ranges are bordered by roads frequently used for recreation and tourism have lost their fear of roads, especially where some cars stop and offer food, becoming prime targets for hunters, poachers, and other human confrontations.

Land animals aren't the only creatures affected by roads. Many fish populations are already at risk of extinction, in part due to the impact of roads. Fish species such as salmon and bull trout require clear gravel stream beds in which to lay their eggs. The sediment that washes from roads into streams fills the spaces between stream-bottom gravel, choking fish eggs. Increased sedimentation also alters the depth, width, and course of rivers and streams, creating barriers to fish migration.

Even the best-kept roads result in 51% more sediment in rivers than occurs normally. For example, an average of 3000 tons of sediment is washed into streams for every mile of divided highway that is built. New roads are especially likely to dump dirt into streams because most areas which are still roadless are only that way because they high elevation areas with steep slopes that are difficult to build roads in. Roads built in these less stable areas are a major cause of erosion. An aerial assessment of 422 landslides in Idaho in 1995 and 1996 found that 70% were related to Forest Service roads.

New roads are often justified using the same argument the logging industry uses to justify more logging-that we can make forests healthier by logging them. Roadless areas are targeted for this intensive logging 'treatment' since they are generally the least intensively managed forests. This leads industrial foresters to perceive them to be the least healthy.

In reality, forests have been managing just fine without us for millennia, and more logging is the major threat to their existence, with few exceptions. The practice of logging forests to promote forest health continues because we subsidize it. This subsidy is amplified in roadless areas, where the logging and the road are subsidized, the habitat restoration costs are particularly high, and the land is removed from further consideration as wilderness. Ironically, the very issues forest health logging purports to address-fungus, disease, insects, and fire-are spread by roads. Fungi, disease, and insects can all be carried into new territory on cars and logging equipment. The widely feared gypsy moth, which defoliates forests, was carried from the southwest to the northwest U.S. in a rented trailer, and Port Orford Cedar root rot, which infects a declining tree species, is transported to new forest with dirt carried in the treads of logging machines. In addition, seventy-five percent of fires are started along roads.

Our government actually pays logging companies to build the roads used to cut trees from our forests. The forest loses out on the logging and the road, and so does the taxpayer. Most sales of national forest trees lose money, partly because we pay logging companies for the roads they build. Roads are a cost of logging which loggers pay for on private and most state forests, but not in national forests. We subsidize their logging roads in a number of ways.

1. We actually give them money. Almost $50 million per year is given to logging companies to build logging roads, through a few different subsidy programs. One program requires the Forest Service to use taxpayer money to pay all of the costs of engineering, wildlife and groundwater impact studies, and geological assessments that must be done prior to building roads. This money is spent so that the Forest Service can determine how much of a subsidy will be given to the logging company that purchases the timber.
   
   
2. The government pays for all future maintenance of logging roads, except for bridge and culvert maintenance. The Forest Service does not include the cost of maintaining the road base -the land upon which the road is built-as part of the sale, despite the fact that road bases deteriorate, causing damage and costing millions of dollars to maintain. The Forest Service also pays to upgrade any roads that will later be used for recreation. Logging roads are built to lower standards than recreation roads; over 70% are accessible only those with high-clearance or off-road vehicles. If the Forest Service decides that a road is no longer needed, they pay for the obliteration of the road.
   
   
3. The government pays for recovery of the fish and wildlife species jeopardized by roads and logging. Taxpayer money is used to subsidize road building when it is known to have negative impacts on wildlife, and then more taxpayer money must be used to save the wildlife. Such action makes little sense from an economic or an environmental standpoint.
   
   
4. The timber roads subsidy is only part of a much bigger and more costly Forest Service practice of losing money on timber sales. Through one money-losing program, the Forest Service allows logging companies to receive trees free of charge in return for building roads. The Forest Service liberally estimates the cost of the roads to ensure they don't underpay, then adds a profit margin for the logging company! This can lead to overpayment of up to 30% or more. The program costs taxpayers about $50 million per year. Such money-losing practices cost the Forest Service almost $1 billion dollars from the years 1992 to 1994 alone, according to the Government Accounting Office. All of this subsidy goes to one industry--logging companies-- even though they are a minority user of the forests, a drain on taxpayers, and their work is directly at odds with nearly every other use of public forests. Recreation on national forests already contributes nearly 30 times more revenue to the our economy than logging our national forests does!
   
   

The best way that you can help stop the intrusion of roads into our last wilderness areas is to write, call, fax, or email your Representative and Senators and let them know that you are concerned about this issue. The links below will send you to directories where you can find the information you need to contact the people that represent you in Congress.

What should a letter to a member of Congress look like? Click here for a sample letter which you can use as a guide for a letter of your own.

• Green Fire: On-line video: Stop Funding Logging Roads
  
• Wildlands Center For Preventing Roads
  
• Article: Roads Built For Logging Increasing