New Forest Service rule would make it tougher to build new roads

John Hughes

Thursday, March 2, 2000 | 12:52 p.m.

WASHINGTON - The Forest Service today proposed to make it more difficult to build new roads in national forests.

Forest managers would have to conduct an analysis and an environmental study, gain approval from a regional forester and show a compelling need before a new road could be built.

"We want to ensure that the American people have safe and efficient access to the public lands they so love in a manner that does not impair land health and water quality," Forest Service Chief Mike Dombeck said in a statement.

The Forest Service was to announce the proposed rule at a news conference in Salt Lake City today.

The proposal is intended to apply to forests that already have roads. The Clinton administration in October announced a separate plan to prevent road construction and development in up to 50 million acres of roadless forests.

The Forest Service has been criticized for its handling of the 380,000 miles of roads across 192 million acres of federal forests.

Environmentalists say the agency gives short shrift to ecology when deciding to build roads, which they say accelerate erosion, disrupt wildlife and make it easier for logging.

Industry and recreation groups fault the Forest Service for closing roads, saying the agency cuts access to forests and makes it tougher to fight fires.

The proposed rule, which could become final in September after a public comment period, aims to address both sides' concerns by requiring forest leaders to seek public input about which roads to build, maintain or eliminate.

The rule also aims to give the public better data about roads, as forest managers would be required to keep an atlas with the location of each road in the forest.

"It outlines a process that ensures equal access to everyone in forests and makes decisions based on sound science," Dombeck said.

The Forest Service faces an $8.4 billion backlog in road reconstruction and maintenance. Congress annually appropriates less than 20 percent of what the agency says it needs to keep up with road repairs.

An additional problem is that forests have 60,000 miles of unauthorized, "ghost roads" created by logging trucks and off-road vehicles.

The heyday of forest road building was in the 1980s, when logging in federal forests reached a peak. But road building has declined from 2,300 miles in 1988 to 215 miles in 1998.

People using the roads have changed, too. Roughly 1.7 million vehicles roll across forest roads each day for recreation, compared with 15,000 logging trucks.

The Clinton administration in February 1999 announced a moratorium on new road building in 33 million acres of forests until the policy announced today becomes final. After that, the roadless policy announced in October is expected to continue the protection of those 33 million acres, plus 17 million other acres.