NEVADA FOCUS: Scientists call on BLM to expand roadless areas

Scott Sonner

Saturday, April 22, 2000 | 9:23 a.m.

RENO, Nev. - Dozens of university scientists across the country are urging Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt to follow the Forest Service's lead by protecting remaining roadless areas managed by the Bureau of Land Management.

"We have far too little of these wild lands left on earth," said James Deacon, a biologist and desert fish specialist in the Department of Environmental Studies at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

"The whole earth's ecosystem is stressed to the point that there is a real question as to whether it can maintain a sustainable society. That means we jolly well better do what we can to maintain the wilderness that we do have," he said.

Deacon joined 65 scientists in petitioning Babbitt recently to produce an accurate inventory of roadless areas and provide them with "appropriate protection based on ecological values."

Many of the scientists come from schools in states with little or no BLM land - Iowa, Vermont, Rhode Island and Pennsylvania.

But a substantial number come from Western states with significant amounts of federal land, such as Nevada, where 87 percent of the land is federally owned, most of it by the BLM.

"Most of the people the BLM hears from around here are county governments and various right-wing, wise-use groups," said Peter Brussard, a biology professor at the University of Nevada, Reno.

"So it is important for scientists who know something about this to communicate with the BLM as well," he said.

"We need a roads policy that everybody can live with. Right now we seem to be totally polarized with hyperenvironmentalists saying shut down every road and county governments saying not only should we maintain roads but open up a whole bunch more. Somewhere in the middle is where we need to be."

Miners, ranchers, environmentalists and outdoor enthusiasts have not shared a common ground as they react to the Clinton-driven proposal to close off large tracts of National Park Service land without roads. The stakes - and the criticism - figure to be much higher in any discussion of adding BLM land, which totals millions of acres in Nevada alone.

The scientists' appeal to Babbitt is based on a report by the Conservation Biology Institute of Corvallis, Ore., documenting a rapid loss of roadless areas since the 1940s.

The study concludes one of the best ways to preserve ecological integrity of wild lands in the West is to protect remaining roadless areas. It estimates only about 5 million acres of the BLM's estimated 85 million acres of roadless areas are protected as designated wilderness.

"Arid and semiarid landscapes are fragile ecosystems easily damaged by human activities and the amount of land currently protected is dismal in most of the eight ecoregions making up this part of the country," said James Strittholt, the institute's executive director.

"Much more needs to be done to maintain the native biodiversity and ecological functions of these important ecosystems," he said.

Scientists at the universities of Alabama, Florida, Maryland, Michigan, Washington and Brown joined the letter along with Arizona State, Ohio State, Iowa State, Colorado State, Oregon State, San Diego State and George Mason.

They told Babbitt there is a growing consensus among scientists that existing roadless areas "contribute substantially to maintaining biodiversity and ecological integrity.

"We believe the key to restoring our natural heritage destroyed or degraded by human uses rests on our ability as a nation to protect our remaining wild fragments from the same abuses that our current restoration targets experienced in decades past," the letter said.

"In the long run, it will be much easier and effective to protect our remaining wildlands today than to try to restore them to a fraction of what they once were in the future."

Any effort to protect roadless areas on BLM lands would be just as controversial in many parts of the West, if not more so, than the Forest Service initiative in the works.

President Clinton charged the agency with coming up with a protection plan for more than 40 million acres of roadless areas in the 191 million acres of national forests in the United States.

Deacon said only about 3 percent or 4 percent of Nevada's 70 million acres are considered roadless or already have been designated as wilderness.

"Nobody knows what a desirable percentage is, but I know 4 percent is really low," he said.

Critics of the Forest Service initiative in Nevada say any attempt to follow suit on BLM lands would draw even stronger opposition because the BLM manages 47 million acres of land in Nevada - an area about the size of the state of South Dakota.

The Forest Service has only about 6 million acres in Nevada.

"It would be received unfavorably throughout the West," said Grant Gerber, an Elko lawyer battling the Forest Service over a washed out road to a remote national forest campground in Jarbidge, Nev.

"It would mean closing more campgrounds, closing more recreational sites, closing more agriculture," Gerber said.

"It would mean completely eliminating any future mining exploration. I would say it would further eliminate gas and oil exploration, but they have already done that," he said.

Gerber said he thinks Babbitt was considering such a move long before the scientists' recommendation last month.

"I think it depends to some degree on their success at the Forest Service," Gerber said about the chances of Babbitt making such a move.

"Our sources in Washington say they are trying to figure out how to get it going on the BLM so that in the event Gore isn't elected, they can get it done before Clinton is out of office," he said.

"The idea of launching an effort to reinventory BLM's 270 million acres to try to improve on the accuracy of the previous inventory is one we clearly could only barely get underway before this administration leaves office," said John Wright, a spokesman for Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt. "We have to weigh that against the value of finishing some important conservation efforts we have long had underway that we can finish before we leave."

Opponents of the Forest Service plan fear the agency will move to close many roads used by four-wheel-drive pickups and all-terrain vehicles that the agency does not consider to meet the definition of a formal road.

Only those roads that can be passed with the clearance of a typical passenger vehicle qualify as a Forest Service road.

Brussard said it's important to consider any closures carefully, especially in parts of the West where roads are scarce and access to wilderness can be difficult.

"Certainly there is an economic impact from roads. On the other hand, I'm not a total fanatic about closing every road in sight other than the ones you can drive the family Honda on. That's a little extreme," he said.

"You lose a big constituency if you do that. People who want to go hunt and fish are an important constituency among those who want to protect the lands.

"Areas that are currently roadless probably should remain so. Roads used for backcountry access need to be maintained to give people a chance to get back there."