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.

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.