FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE March 27, 2008
CONTACTS: Marnie Criley, Wildlands CPR, 406-543-9551
Scott Brennan, The Wilderness Society, 406-586-1600, ext. 117
Chris Frissell, Pacific Rivers Council, 406-471-3167
Missoula, MT – The Forest Service has released a $4.7 million list of projects for the coming year that will improve water quality and create jobs on national forests across Montana and northern Idaho. These projects, part of a national allocation of $39.4 million, will be implemented in the Northern Region of the Forest Service (Montana, Northern Idaho and North Dakota) and are expected to create roughly 65 local jobs in Montana while working to treat decaying Forest Service roads and trails that contribute to water quality problems, especially in areas that support threatened or endangered species, like bull trout, and provide clean drinking water for communities.
This year’s funding for the Legacy Roads Initiative represents the most money ever appropriated to the Forest Service specifically for road reclamation and remediation to address the huge backlog of road-related problems. While this new funding is for the current fiscal year (FY 2008), groups across the country are working to extend this program into 2009 and beyond.
"This innovative program will provide many benefits to Montanans,” said Marnie Criley, Restoration Coordinator for Wildlands CPR. “First, it will save the Forest Service money in the long run by addressing road issues before they become road nightmares for fisheries and streams. Just as important, it will provide restoration jobs to people living in Montana's rural communities.”
Road remediation and reclamation activities are designed to bring significant benefits to water quality in national forests by reducing sediment, restoring fish habitat connectivity and protecting and restoring clean drinking water. Specific treatments include upgrading culverts that are acting as barriers to fish passage; conducting critical, overdue maintenance; and reclaiming unneeded, ecologically damaging roads. Reclaiming roads reconnects fragmented habitat, benefiting threatened species like lynx, bear and wolves.
The Forest Service is responsible for managing over 51,000 miles of roads in Montana, northern Idaho and North Dakota. The Northern Region allocated approximately 18 percent of the funds to restoring fish passage, approximately 22 percent of the funds to road reclamation and the remainder to critical road and trail maintenance and upgrades, including bridge repairs.
Summary of Overall Funding by Unit
Unit Funding for 2008
Beaverhead-Deerlodge $275,000
Bitterroot $530,000
Clearwater $524,000
Custer $351,000
Dakota Prairie $224,000
Flathead $350,000
Gallatin $405,000
Helena $177,000
Idaho Panhandle $520,000
Kootenai $388,000
Lewis and Clark $333,000
Lolo $250,000
Nez Perce $375,000
Total $4,703,000
[Note: Spreadsheets detailing the projects [0] and USFS cover letter [0] are available upon request.]
The road decommissioning funds spent in Montana are predicted to stimulate between $5.8 and $6.0 million in sales for Montana businesses, $1.6-$1.8 million in wages, about .5 million dollars in income for small businesses, more than $100,000 in local and state taxes, and 60-67 full and part-time jobs.
The economic impacts model, the widely-used IMPLAN software, predicts that economic stimulus will occur not only in businesses engaged in road construction and maintenance, but also in a wide range of other businesses including architectural and engineering services, wholesale trade, and transportation. Additional effects will also occur in Idaho as projects occur in the Idaho Panhandle and Nez Perce National Forests. [Note: Modeling available upon request.]
This infusion of $4.7 million for road reclamation and remediation can provide approximately 70 family-wage jobs in rural communities across Montana and northern Idaho. This appropriation is also one more infusion into the growing restoration economy in Montana and the intermountain region.
“We can protect clean water and fish habitat, prevent damage to public and private property, and save millions of taxpayer dollars by addressing these problems on our national forests,” said Scott Brennan, Northern Rockies Forest Program Director of the Wilderness Society. The Forest Service estimates, for example, that road decommissioning could save taxpayers up to $1,200 annually per mile of reclaimed road.
The investment in restoration can also protect people in communities whose drinking water originates on Forest Service lands. For example, the Legacy Roads funding allocations in this region will specifically be used to protect clean drinking water for Butte, Montana. That said, more community drinking water protection projects were submitted than the agency was able to fund this time around.
"We've been working a long time for this,” said Chris Frisssell, aquatic ecologist and Director of Science and Conservation for the Pacific Rivers Council. “Legacy Roads money will be crucial for the Forest Service to meet long-overdue obligations for watershed restoration and sediment reduction in many streams across the state."
In actuality, there were many more needs than the 2008 funding could meet. Project requests from forests totaled $12 million which means only 40 percent of needed work will get done this year. This initial investment in watershed restoration is an important first step toward solving an enormous problem that will require significant long-term investments. Wildlands CPR, The Wilderness Society and Pacific Rivers Council will continue to work with the Forest Service and others to ensure that unneeded roads are reclaimed in order to restore fish and wildlife habitat, secure sources of clean drinking water, and improve wildlife habitat throughout the state.