There are approximately 4700 miles of system (classified) roads on the Clearwater National Forest (Clearwater National Forest 1999), and an estimated 1340 additional miles of nonsystem (uninventoried) roads (Connor and Bradbury 1998). Many of the non-system roads are "jammer" logging roads built for timber harvest several decades ago, with little regard to ecological impacts of road construction or potential failure. Road maintenance funds have never been adequate to maintain the entire road network, therefore many roads have fallen into disrepair (Clearwater National Forest 1999). Many of the older logging roads became overgrown with shrubs and trees, and were assumed to be stable because of the vegetation cover. However, flooding in 1995 and 1996 after the fires of 1994 caused between 750 and 950 landslides in the Clearwater National Forest, most of which were associated with roads and logged areas, including unclassified brushed-in roads (McClelland et. al., 1997). In response to the road-associated landslides of 1995 and 1996, the Clearwater National Forest (CNF) and Nez Perce Tribe initiated an aggressive road removal program with the primary goal of decreasing sediment delivery to streams. Part of this effort has been removing replacing culverts that pose a threat to stream integrity or act as fish barriers.

The road obliteration effort on the CNF has been held up as a model for road removal. We are assessing the road removal program on the CNF as an example of a relatively progressive road management program, with regard to its relationship to the national roads analysis process (RAP). We are writing this evaluation of the CNF obliteration program from an ecological background, with the objective of increasing its applicability to improving ecological integrity. Watershed consulting recently completed a critical analysis of the USDA National Forest roads analysis guidance document, "Roads Analysis: Informing Decisions about Managing the National Forest Transportation System." In the critical analysis we evaluated the effectiveness of the national RAP to preserve or improve ecological integrity on national forests. This report expands on that analysis, relating the RAP guidance document to the road analysis and removal efforts on a specific national forest.

 

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