Scientific Basis for Roadless Area Conservation

Executive Summary

June 2002

National Forest roadless areas contain irreplaceable reserves of wildlife habitat and plant life, and perform many valuable ecosystem services used by all Americans. These wild areas also play an esteemed 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 have been increasingly threatened by careless road building and inappropriate management for resource extraction purposes. Nation-wide, the USDA Forest Service has over 378,000 miles of roads with a substantial backlog of road maintenance needs. Meanwhile, since the 1970s, about 1 million acres of roadless areas have been logged each year adding to an already over burdened road repair backlog and reducing ecosystem services provided by intact forests.

Recognizing these problems, the USDA Forest Service adopted the Roadless Area Conservation Rule on January 12, 2001 to protect inventoried roadless areas totaling 58.5 million acres, an area roughly the size of New York and Pennsylvania. This rule, enacted by executive order of President Clinton, was intended to carefully regulate road construction in roadless areas. On the same day, the USDA Forest Service adopted a Transportation Policy that contained additional protections for roadless areas.

The rule was enacted after a public comment period and 600 open meetings around the nation resulted in an unprecedented 1.6 million comments - overwhelmingly in favor of the rule - from citizens demanding that the degradation of environmentally sensitive roadless areas be halted.

The rule, as originally written, allows for efficient reconstruction and maintenance of USDA Forest Service roads; construction of new roads necessary for National Forest system resource management; and future construction, restoration, and maintenance of roads with minimal long-term adverse environmental impacts. However, the rule is now in jeopardy by recent court decisions and administrative directives aimed at weakening its protections.

Leading up to the enactment of the roadless conservation rule, several scientific studies have demonstrated unequivocal support for the protection of roadless areas. At the same time, scientists were turning their attention to documenting the impacts of roads and associated logging on the extent and rate of forest fragmentation across the nation (see Conservation Biology 2000 - Special Edition on roads). The current roads network has produced more than 378,000 miles of roads criss-crossing the National Forests, enough to drive around the globe nearly 16 times. Consequently, roadless areas are what remain of the nation's dwindling intact and functional ecosystems.

There is a long history of conservation and protection in the United States, dating back to the first National Park in 1872 - Yellowstone. Since then, however, the nation has protected just 5% of its land area in National Parks, Wilderness, and National Monuments (DellaSala et al. 1999) - considered far too low to prevent the inevitable march toward extinction of rare, threatened, and endangered fish and wildlife species impacted by the loss of and fragmentation of intact forests. Most (97%) of the nation's protected areas are too small (<25,000 acres) to absorb natural or human-imposed disturbances (DellaSala et al. 1999). This is especially the case in the eastern United States where few inventoried roadless areas (>5,000 acres) remain and restoration of smaller unroaded (1,000-5,000 acres) areas is the best opportunity for intact forests. The Pacific Northwest, Tongass National Forest, and Rocky Mountain region, provide perhaps the nation's last chance at protecting large, functionally intact forests - with the Tongass National Forest containing some of the largest blocks of intact watersheds in the Western hemisphere.

A comprehensive analysis of inventoried roadless areas within six ecoregions of the Pacific Northwest encompassing the range of the northern spotted owl ( Strix occidentalis caurina ) east and west of the Cascade Mountains in Washington, Oregon, and northern California revealed that roadless areas contributed to:

• overall levels of federal lands in protection;
• key watersheds essential for salmon survival;
• locations of threatened and endangered species;
• late-seral (mature/old growth) forests;
• elevation representation;
• physical habitat representation; and
• plant community representation.

In addition to their ecological benefits, roadless areas provide many social benefits. Non-motorized recreation is on the rise in the National Forests, which, in many places, cannot keep up with demand for backcountry experiences. Many Western communities are transitioning from extraction-dominated and unsustainable resource economies of the past to more diversified, robust economies of today. Roadless areas, National Parks, and Wilderness areas can contribute to this transition by attracting new businesses associated with accelerated growth in amenities-based and service-related industries and small businesses spreading across the West. Evidence from 410 counties in the West indicates that counties with higher levels of protection tend to have more robust and stronger economies than those having lower levels of protection (Southwick Associates 2001).

Because many (more than 50%) of roadless areas intersect watersheds that provide drinking water to local communities (USDA Forest Service DEIS 2000), these areas are crucial for maintaining a consistent supply of drinking water, particularly in areas subject to droughts. Moreover, roadless areas, because of difficulties in access and lack of fire suppression and logging effects, generally have lower fire risks and fewer insect epidemics than heavily logged and roaded landscapes (DellaSala and Frost 2001). Finally, a commitment to lasting roadless area conservation, while important ecologically and socially, would add just 2% to the nation's protected area network (Strittholt and DellaSala 2001). Furthermore, the ecologically values noted in this report vary considerably among ecoregions. Therefore, roadless areas do not contribute to conservation in a uniform fashion across the nation and further conservation measures will be necessary for a more complete reserve network. While roadless areas are essential in achieving a more representative network of protected areas in many regions, their conservation will need to be supplemented with additional protections and more sustainable resource practices on federal lands as we enter the 21st century - a period of increasing resource demands but shrinking natural capital.

This document is a synthesis of the literature on roadless importance, drawing primarily on the published studies presented in the bibliography and available from the World Wildlife Fund and the Conservation Biology Institute. The authors of this document have spent nearly a decade compiling databases and conducting satellite imagery and computer mapping assessments that document the importance of roadless areas and the extent of forest fragmentation across the nation. This document provides a scientific foundation in support of lasting protections for roadless areas.

For more information, contact Dr. Dominick A. DellaSala or Dr. James Strittholt .