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Legacy Roads Remediation

Legacy Roads

When it comes to salmon recovery, removing dams grabs the headlines, and when it comes to forest health, wildfire and thinning projects are in the spotlight. But there is an intersection between these issues that’s equally important, if not yet considered front-page news: reclaiming forest roads. That’s because decaying, unmanaged, under-maintained roads are a top threat to endangered salmon and clean drinking water for thousands of communities, as well as elk, grizzly bears and other wildlife that depend on large blocks of intact habitat to survive.

The Forest Service has accumulated a $10 billion national road maintenance backlog. This backlog could be significantly reduced if the agency invested in road reclamation to lower the overall mileage of roads they are required to maintain over the long-term.

Nationally, the Forest Service estimates that they need to remove an estimated 186,000 miles of roads to bring the road system down to a manageable, maintainable system that still meets the needs of the agency and forest users. A 2003 Wildlands CPR study found that it would cost approximately $93 million per year for about 20 years to implement a national road removal plan. That $93 million would provide between 2,000-3,000 high-wage, high-skill jobs in rural communities, making such an appropriation good for the land and for the communities that depend on the land.

Wildlands CPR is active in this effort to address the legacy roads issue in our public lands. After becoming involved in the Washington Watershed Restoration Initiative, Wildlands CPR worked with our partner organizations in California, Idaho, Montana, New Mexico, Arizona and Colorado to help generate broad western support for the Legacy Roads and Trails Restoration Initiative (LRRI). After its passage we pulled together a quick summary of road removal needs throughout the country, again with help from partner organizations in the states above and in the southeast. We also met directly with Forest Service staff in DC to provide input on how the LRRI funding should be distributed nationally, and we provided numerous Wildlands CPR resources to help build effective road decommissioning programs. We also requested strong monitoring and guidance that the funding be used largely for decommissioning work, not just for critical maintenance. Wildlands CPR continues to be active participants in promoting and implementing effective legacy roads restoration policy.