Spring 2011 Updates

Travel Management Campaign

Since 2005, Wildlands CPR has been co-leading a westwide campaign to address subpart B of the Travel Management Rule while simultaneously pushing the Forest Service (FS) to implement subpart A. Subpart B addresses designating roads, trails and areas for motorized use, while subpart A focuses on identifying an ecologically and fiscally sustainable minimum road system.

As featured in the last Road-RIPorter (Winter Solstice 2010), the Forest Service recently issued important direction on subpart A. The minimum road system analysis, taking place between now and 2015, is one of the most important opportunities in the past generation to improve forest and watershed health.

Wildlands CPR Executive Director Bethanie Walder and Restoration Campaign Director Sue Gunn met with the FS national leadership team for subpart A in December and early March to discuss progress with the new policy. In addition, we’ve met with regional implementation teams in four of the nine FS regions, with a fifth regional meeting planned. For example, in January, Sue coordinated a meeting between the Pacific Northwest (R6) staff and members of the Washington Watershed Restoration Initiative, and Adam Rissien, our Transportation Policy Coordinator, pulled together a meeting between several Montana groups and the Northern regional staff (R1). In February we partnered with Southern Appalachian Forest Council on a meeting in Atlanta (R8), and with the Center for Biological Diversity and other groups on a meeting with the Southwest Region (R3). We also partnered with numerous groups on a meeting with the Intermountain Region (R4) team in March, and finally, we’ve also sent support letters to many of the regions, signed by a broad coalition of local groups.

These meetings have helped us identify themes, ideas and concerns about the process, which will become part of the mix as the regions and forests interface with other interest groups.

As to subpart B, Adam and our Legal Liaison/Staff Attorney Sarah Peters are following up on our lawsuit against the Beaverhead-Deerlodge NF (Montana) challenging its revised forest plan as it pertains to winter motorized use. Sarah is working with local environmental attorney (and new Wildlands CPR Board member) Jack Tuholske on this case. To substantiate our claims, Adam has been coordinating monitoring, working with Lighthawk and Friends of the Bitterroot to schedule over-flights of protected areas in the West Big Hole, complete with videographer and GPS specialist. Adam also coordinated volunteers to measure snowmobile use in the West Pioneers Wilderness Study Area, where we settled a lawsuit with the FS last year to eliminate snowmobile grooming. The volunteers checked FS infrared counters, which indicated mixed effectiveness. This data will be used in the agency’s winter travel planning.

Sarah is also assisting with travel planning litigation on the Custer NF (MT), the Klamath-
Siskiyou NF (OR), the Salmon-Challis and Sawtooth NFs (ID), and the Pike-San Isabel NF (CO). While Wildlands CPR wasn’t a plaintiff in the Salmon-Challis case, Sarah’s strategic support helped result in the court’s ruling that the agency must follow the plain language of the off-road vehicle Executive Orders by minimizing the impacts of off-road vehicles on natural resources and other users (see our cover story).

Both within and outside litigation, Sarah is getting more involved in OR national forest planning
as a result of a new grant we received from the Jubitz Family Foundation. To help guide her work, we formed an Oregon Advisory Board (see Around the Office on page 22). One of the first things Sarah is tackling is the subpart B travel planning process on the Umpqua NF, which could use some serious
improvement. She’s also continuing her involvement with the Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area motorized trail designations, as well as work in the Rogue River-Siskiyou NFs.

Sarah helped coordinate several panels at the 29th annual Public Interest Environmental Law Conference (PIELC) in Eugene, including one on subpart B and one on a recent 9th Circuit decision related to logging roads and the Clean Water Act. Both were standing room only, and the subpart B panel was featured in a Los Angeles Times article! (On a related note, Sarah co-authored an excellent amicus brief on the 9th Circuit decision, arguing that it should stand and not be reheard.) Bethanie also coordinated a PIELC panel about subpart A/rightsizing the road system that was well attended and provided an overview of this important process.

Legacy Roads and Trails

Sue coordinates our other primary campaign, the Legacy Roads and Trails Remediation Initiative (LRT). It’s challenging to report on LRT because Congress still hasn’t adopted a budget for fiscal year 2011 (FY11), and we don’t know how much funding the program will receive (see DePaving the Way, this issue,
for more details). We’ve been on a roller coaster since December, when Congress nearly passed a budget that would have continued “level” funding (the same as FY10) for LRT at $90 million. But that died, and two short-term continuing resolutions since then have not made any changes. In February the House proposed a budget that cut all sorts of programs including LRT (shrinking it from $90 million to ~$50 million), but at press time, the actual FY11 budget remains unknown. The bright news is that the President’s proposed budget for FY12 includes $75 million for LRT. Though still a cut from FY10, everything is likely to get cut from FY10 levels. We’ll keep you posted as this plays out.

In the interim, Sue has had her hands full organizing sign-on letters from diverse constituents in MT, OR, CA, AZ, NM, CO, ID and WA to key Congressional offices articulating broad support for LRT.
Sue and Bethanie also spent a week in DC educating new and old Congressional supporters about the importance of this program to green jobs, clean water and recreational access.

To increase support for Legacy Roads and rightsizing, Wildlands CPR partnered with Geos Institute on a series of maps illustrating the connections between roads and clean water. We used our first
“proof of concept” maps in presentations at USDA, on the Hill, and with some new potential partners. The maps will become a powerful tool for making links between clean water and roads as we are able to add more municipalities to the mix.

From an on-the-ground perspective, Science Program Director Adam Switalski is knee-deep in planning and hiring for the summer field season and year two of our LRT monitoring program. Last year we conducted baseline monitoring on five different national forests, and this year we’ll go back to those same sites for the first year of post-decommissioning monitoring, while ideally also adding at least two more sites. This project has the full support of the FS, and Northern Regional Forester Leslie Weldon.

Other projects

In addition to our LRT field monitoring, Adam S. is coordinating our road reconnaissance surveys on the Lolo National Forest. Unfortunately, we may not be able to finalize our agreement with the Lolo until Congress passes a FY11 budget. We’re hopeful the project will be funded so we can continue to provide information for the agency’s rightsizing process.

During the winter, Adam focused on data analysis and building the scientific basis for our advocacy, including submitting papers for publication in peer-reviewed journals. For starters, Adam coauthored a paper published in the March 2011 issue of Restoration Ecology, “Restoration of Native Plant Communities after Road Decommissioning in the Rocky Mountains: Effect of Seed-Mix Composition on Vegetative Establishment,” (the lead author was Ashley Grant, who recently completed her Masters at University of Montana).

He also partnered with former board member/University of Montana professor Cara Nelson to finalize analysis and submit a paper to Biological Conservation about wildlife response to road removal on the Clearwater National Forest. In addition, Adam is partnering with The Nature Conservancy on a climate  change “call to action” paper that they will submit for publication soon. Wildlands CPR also hired several contractors to help develop new business plans for our future restoration work. Betsy Hands completed a plan for a restoration training and certification program related to road eclamation/stormproofing/critical maintenance.

Adam R. is overseeing next steps in implementing that plan. In addition, Ryan Atwell completed a strategic action plan for developing “Payment for Ecosystem Services” programs to secure private dollars to reclaim unneeded forest roads in watersheds that provide municipal drinking water. The maps we developed with Geos Institute will be critical for this ecosystem markets project.