Scientific basis for roadless area conservation

National Forest roadless areas contain irreplaceable reserves of wildlife and plant diversity, performing many valuable ecosystem services used by all Americans. These wild areas play an important role in our national identity and history, with interest in their protection dating back to the early 1970s.

Despite their importance, National Forest roadless areas are threatened by extensive road building and inappropriate management for resource extraction that on average have degraded about 1 million roadless acres annually.

Meanwhile, the Bush administration has failed to administer or defend the Roadless Conservation Rule enacted by President Clinton, despite overwhelming public support expressed in 600 public meetings and over 2 million written comments. In response to the need for lasting protections, Congress has introduced the Roadless Area Conservation Act (H.R. 4865) to protect nearly 60 million acres of National Forest roadless areas, which, if passed, would take its place among the landmark conservation acts of our nation's history.

Now, WWF and the Conservation Biology Institute have completed the most comprehensive assessment of roadless areas to date, drawing primarily on peer-reviewed science and nearly a decade of satellite imagery and computer mapping assessments. This document illustrates unequivocally the need for roadless areas protection throughout the nation, but more specifically for forests in northern California, Oregon, Washington, and southeast Alaska (Tongass National Forest) - which include some of the most biologically diverse and intact forests remaining in the nation. Our findings demonstrate that lasting protections for roadless areas would contribute to the conservation of:

• key watersheds for salmon survival;
• habitat for numerous threatened and endangered species;
• mature and old-growth forests;
• elevation representation (more than "rock and ice" high-elevation parks);
• a diverse array of important plant and wildlife habitats; and
• quality drinking water.

Roadless areas also provide social benefits - economic analysis indicates that counties across the West with higher levels of protection tend to have more robust and stronger economies than those having lower levels of protection. Moreover, roadless areas, because of difficulties in access and lack of fire suppression and logging impacts, generally have lower fire risks and fewer insect epidemics than heavily logged and roaded landscapes.

Finally, a commitment to lasting roadless area protection, while important ecologically and socially, would add just 2 percent to the nation's protected area network, which is already woefully inadequate (nationwide just 5 percent of our lands have been protected as National Parks, Wilderness, and National Monuments).

While roadless areas are essential in achieving a more representative network of protected areas, their conservation will need to be supplemented with future protections and more sustainable resource practices on federal lands in the 21st century - a period of accelerating resource demands and shrinking natural capital.