Watershed Restoration

Background

A watershed is basically a specified area of land drained by one river system.  In wildland ecosystems, roads are one of the biggest threats to overall watershed health. Thus preventing, mitigating or completely stopping the impacts (through restoration) caused by roads is one of the most important steps we can take to restore watershed health, and specifically the aquatic and terrestrial impacts caused by roads. To learn more about watershed restoration, click here.

Science

Thousands of peer-reviewed articles have been published regarding the ecological impacts of roads.  A much smaller number of articles have been published regarding the benefits and impacts of road reclamation.  To learn more about the ecological effects of roads, click here.  You can also visit our bibliographic database to research specific impacts.  To read a journal article by our staff scientist about the state of the science regarding road reclamation, click here.

Advocacy

Wildlands CPR leads the 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 (Legacy Roads and Trails/LRT). To learn more about Legacy Roads and Trails Restoration Initiative, click here.

On the Ground

The clearest example of our effectiveness on the ground can be found in the results from our Legacy Roads and Trails campaign.  While funding for Legacy Roads and Trails has been shrinking as a result of the budgetary negotiations in Washington DC, numerous staff continue to praise the program as the best thing (funding) that has ever happened to watershed restoration on national forests. To learn more about our on the ground work in watershed restoration, click here.