Program Updates, Summer 2011
We spent much of the last quarter hunkered down, in the strategic depths of different projects related to both our off-road vehicle travel planning efforts and the new rightsizing guidance…
Travel Planning
The Forest Service is finally starting to wrap up their off-road vehicle travel planning process, keeping our Staff Attorney/Legal Liaison Sarah Peters very busy assisting activists as they review and respond to final agency decisions. Among others, Sarah has worked with activists focusing on the Routt and White River National Forests in Colorado and the Kaibab-Tusayan NF in Arizona.
Sarah’s also been working to prevent a travel-planning train wreck on the Umpqua National Forest. She’s coordinating activist efforts at several levels, and we’re encouraged, as the acting Supervisor seems receptive to our concerns and interested in working towards a better solution.
Meanwhile, Sarah and Adam Rissien, our Policy Specialist, have been elbow-deep preparing for the next stages of engagement in our ongoing lawsuit against the Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest over travel planning. New Wildlands CPR board member Jack Tuholske is the lead attorney on that case.
Adam continues to follow other BDNF efforts. For example, one of our partner groups was considering appealing a new Beaverhead-Deerlodge NF Madison District decision. Adam worked with them and the BDNF to prevent the appeal by getting the agency to close several contentious roads.
Outside of the travel planning context, Adam also took the lead on Wildlands CPR’s engagement on the National Forest Management Act Planning Rule rewrite. He submitted detailed comments, focusing specifically on recreation. He also partnered with our Science Program Director Adam Switalski to question the agency’s failure to include road density standards as requirements. Adam is now acting as our liaison to the Three Forests Coalition in Utah, and partnered with them as they created UT specific comments on the NFMA rule as well.
Rightsizing/Legacy Roads and Trails
The big news to report this quarter is bittersweet: Congress finally adopted a budget in April, which included $45 million in funding for the Forest Service’s Legacy Roads and Trails program. Why bittersweet? Well, bitter because the Forest Service had received $90 million for LRT in FY10, so the FY11 level was just 50% of that level – a big hit to an important program. But, in this era of insane budget cutting, we consider it rather sweet that the program was funded at all. It is our understanding that the $45 million number was not seen as a 50% cut, however. Congress basically went back to the proposed FY11 President’s budget, which included LRT at only $50 million (yes, that was disappointing, but at least the FY12 President’s budget proposes to fund LRT at $75 million). They then cut LRT by 10% from the proposed FY11 budget to get to the $45 million number. We’re still waiting for the regional allocations to be publicized, but we’ll pass them along as soon as we know them.
Speaking of getting information, we did finally receive the “final” LRT project reports from FY10. They are posted on our website here. You can use these allocation spreadsheets to see exactly what projects the FS implemented in FY10.
While LRT’s been on a funding rollercoaster this spring, our Restoration Campaign Director, Sue Gunn, has been on a beeline to secure strong support for that $75 million number in the President’s Wildlands CPR’s monitoring of trail use on the budget.
She’s been working with grassroots groups throughout the west to engage more decisionmakers as supporters of LRT. Adam Rissien has also been working this issue hard in Montana, promoting the excellent on-the-ground projects and their many benefits, including high-wage, high-skill jobs. Just before we went to press, for example, Adam co-authored a great opinion-editorial with Brianna Randall of the Clark Fork Coalition about maintaining Legacy Roads and Trails funding in light of the severe flooding that’s occurring in Montana this spring. The op-ed appeared in the Missoulian (the daily paper in Missoula, MT) on June 7. His op-ed thanked Senators Tester and Baucus for their support of this important program.
But our LRT work is not limited to national policy. We’re also monitoring Forest Service LRT projects on the ground, and that’s where Adam Switalski has been focusing his time lately. With a second year of support from the National Forest Foundation, Adam is expanding our monitoring project in partnership with an extensive group of collaborators to check field cameras and record data: Sierra Club, Northern Rockies Chapter of the Wildlands Restoration Corps, Friends of the Clearwater, Montana Conservation Corps, Hawkins Creek Stewardship Committee, Yaak Valley Forest Council, Nez Perce Tribe and University of Montana’s Wilderness Institute. Having people closer to some of our field sites not only saves us time and energy, it has the added benefit of involving local citizens in this great monitoring project. In addition to finding and training all of these grassroots partners, Adam hired two field techs to conduct vegetation surveys and collate the data for all six field sites. The LRT monitoring has also given Adam time to photo-document the high number of new road failures caused by spring flooding, So far he’s seen few, if any, problems on reclaimed roads.
Our funding from NFF was in the form of a 1:1 challenge grant. So in addition to Adams work involving all sorts of grassroots groups, Development Director Tom Petersen and Program Associate Cathrine Walters crafted a great email campaign to secure matching funds for a portion of the grant. Our goal was $2500, but we beat that and raised $3435 in just three weeks! Thanks to all who contributed, this helps us get those field techs out there on the ground.
In a related effort, Adam S. and Cara Nelson, Assistant Professor of Restoration Ecology at the University of Montana (and former Wildlands CPR Board member), revised and resubmitted a paper documenting our Clearwater National Forest (ID) monitoring. The paper, Efficacy of Road Removal for Restoring Wildlife Habitat: Black Bear in the Northern Rocky Mountains, USA, was recently accepted by the journal Biological Conservation. Congratulations Adam and Cara!
All this on-the-ground work provides important guidance to our rightsizing campaign, which is designed to create a blueprint for spending future Legacy Roads and Trails funding. The Forest Service is starting, just barely, to dip its toes into the rightsizing waters. Wildlands CPR is pushing and prodding them to get their feet a little wetter. We continue to meet with the national rightsizing team, while also engaging with specific regions regarding the actual implementation of the rightsizing guidance.
For example, Adam Rissien has been meeting regularly with regional staff in Montana to better understand their approach to rightsizing in Montana and Northern Idaho. Adam and Executive Director Bethanie Walder developed a set of recommendations for use in their conversations with regional and national staff about how to craft an effective rightsizing effort on the ground.
We’re also knee-deep, as evidenced by numerous articles in this RIPorter, in assessing the Forest Service Watershed Condition Framework (WCF) and its intersection with rightsizing. Bethanie and Adam R. met with members of the national WCF team to increase our understanding of this effort. Bethanie also partnered with the Geos Institute to develop a set of “proof-of-concept” maps (see cover story, this issue) that begin to highlight the connections between national forests, roads and drinking water. Information like this will play an important role in our long-term efforts to rightsize the Forest Service road system.
Travel Planning
The Forest Service is finally starting to wrap up their off-road vehicle travel planning process, keeping our Staff Attorney/Legal Liaison Sarah Peters very busy assisting activists as they review and respond to final agency decisions. Among others, Sarah has worked with activists focusing on the Routt and White River National Forests in Colorado and the Kaibab-Tusayan NF in Arizona.
Sarah’s also been working to prevent a travel-planning train wreck on the Umpqua National Forest. She’s coordinating activist efforts at several levels, and we’re encouraged, as the acting Supervisor seems receptive to our concerns and interested in working towards a better solution.
Meanwhile, Sarah and Adam Rissien, our Policy Specialist, have been elbow-deep preparing for the next stages of engagement in our ongoing lawsuit against the Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest over travel planning. New Wildlands CPR board member Jack Tuholske is the lead attorney on that case.
Adam continues to follow other BDNF efforts. For example, one of our partner groups was considering appealing a new Beaverhead-Deerlodge NF Madison District decision. Adam worked with them and the BDNF to prevent the appeal by getting the agency to close several contentious roads.
Outside of the travel planning context, Adam also took the lead on Wildlands CPR’s engagement on the National Forest Management Act Planning Rule rewrite. He submitted detailed comments, focusing specifically on recreation. He also partnered with our Science Program Director Adam Switalski to question the agency’s failure to include road density standards as requirements. Adam is now acting as our liaison to the Three Forests Coalition in Utah, and partnered with them as they created UT specific comments on the NFMA rule as well.
Rightsizing/Legacy Roads and Trails
The big news to report this quarter is bittersweet: Congress finally adopted a budget in April, which included $45 million in funding for the Forest Service’s Legacy Roads and Trails program. Why bittersweet? Well, bitter because the Forest Service had received $90 million for LRT in FY10, so the FY11 level was just 50% of that level – a big hit to an important program. But, in this era of insane budget cutting, we consider it rather sweet that the program was funded at all. It is our understanding that the $45 million number was not seen as a 50% cut, however. Congress basically went back to the proposed FY11 President’s budget, which included LRT at only $50 million (yes, that was disappointing, but at least the FY12 President’s budget proposes to fund LRT at $75 million). They then cut LRT by 10% from the proposed FY11 budget to get to the $45 million number. We’re still waiting for the regional allocations to be publicized, but we’ll pass them along as soon as we know them.
Speaking of getting information, we did finally receive the “final” LRT project reports from FY10. They are posted on our website here. You can use these allocation spreadsheets to see exactly what projects the FS implemented in FY10.
While LRT’s been on a funding rollercoaster this spring, our Restoration Campaign Director, Sue Gunn, has been on a beeline to secure strong support for that $75 million number in the President’s Wildlands CPR’s monitoring of trail use on the budget.
She’s been working with grassroots groups throughout the west to engage more decisionmakers as supporters of LRT. Adam Rissien has also been working this issue hard in Montana, promoting the excellent on-the-ground projects and their many benefits, including high-wage, high-skill jobs. Just before we went to press, for example, Adam co-authored a great opinion-editorial with Brianna Randall of the Clark Fork Coalition about maintaining Legacy Roads and Trails funding in light of the severe flooding that’s occurring in Montana this spring. The op-ed appeared in the Missoulian (the daily paper in Missoula, MT) on June 7. His op-ed thanked Senators Tester and Baucus for their support of this important program.
But our LRT work is not limited to national policy. We’re also monitoring Forest Service LRT projects on the ground, and that’s where Adam Switalski has been focusing his time lately. With a second year of support from the National Forest Foundation, Adam is expanding our monitoring project in partnership with an extensive group of collaborators to check field cameras and record data: Sierra Club, Northern Rockies Chapter of the Wildlands Restoration Corps, Friends of the Clearwater, Montana Conservation Corps, Hawkins Creek Stewardship Committee, Yaak Valley Forest Council, Nez Perce Tribe and University of Montana’s Wilderness Institute. Having people closer to some of our field sites not only saves us time and energy, it has the added benefit of involving local citizens in this great monitoring project. In addition to finding and training all of these grassroots partners, Adam hired two field techs to conduct vegetation surveys and collate the data for all six field sites. The LRT monitoring has also given Adam time to photo-document the high number of new road failures caused by spring flooding, So far he’s seen few, if any, problems on reclaimed roads.
Our funding from NFF was in the form of a 1:1 challenge grant. So in addition to Adams work involving all sorts of grassroots groups, Development Director Tom Petersen and Program Associate Cathrine Walters crafted a great email campaign to secure matching funds for a portion of the grant. Our goal was $2500, but we beat that and raised $3435 in just three weeks! Thanks to all who contributed, this helps us get those field techs out there on the ground.
In a related effort, Adam S. and Cara Nelson, Assistant Professor of Restoration Ecology at the University of Montana (and former Wildlands CPR Board member), revised and resubmitted a paper documenting our Clearwater National Forest (ID) monitoring. The paper, Efficacy of Road Removal for Restoring Wildlife Habitat: Black Bear in the Northern Rocky Mountains, USA, was recently accepted by the journal Biological Conservation. Congratulations Adam and Cara!
All this on-the-ground work provides important guidance to our rightsizing campaign, which is designed to create a blueprint for spending future Legacy Roads and Trails funding. The Forest Service is starting, just barely, to dip its toes into the rightsizing waters. Wildlands CPR is pushing and prodding them to get their feet a little wetter. We continue to meet with the national rightsizing team, while also engaging with specific regions regarding the actual implementation of the rightsizing guidance.
For example, Adam Rissien has been meeting regularly with regional staff in Montana to better understand their approach to rightsizing in Montana and Northern Idaho. Adam and Executive Director Bethanie Walder developed a set of recommendations for use in their conversations with regional and national staff about how to craft an effective rightsizing effort on the ground.
We’re also knee-deep, as evidenced by numerous articles in this RIPorter, in assessing the Forest Service Watershed Condition Framework (WCF) and its intersection with rightsizing. Bethanie and Adam R. met with members of the national WCF team to increase our understanding of this effort. Bethanie also partnered with the Geos Institute to develop a set of “proof-of-concept” maps (see cover story, this issue) that begin to highlight the connections between national forests, roads and drinking water. Information like this will play an important role in our long-term efforts to rightsize the Forest Service road system.
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 Get With the Program.pdf | 155.08 KB |
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