Services

Workshops
Wildlands CPR conducts three distinct styles of workshops, though each has certain similar components. We offer inventory/ground-truthing workshops, restoration workshops, and also road prevention strategy workshops. Our workshops are led by people familiar with road-fighting techniques, using active hands-on or field-based methods to teach people to prevent, close, or restore wildland roads. Please call our Missoula office us if you would like information on upcoming workshops or if you'd like to sponser a workshop in your area.

Road Inventory Workshops
The majority of our workshops have focused on training activists to go out on the ground and inventory Forest Service or BLM roads and use this data to advocate effective road closure programs. Activists learn to use stereoscopes and aerial photos to analyze transportation maps for "ghost roads" and then to look for those ghost roads on the land. We discuss methods for petitioning public land agencies to close roads using such tools as Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests, agency planning documents, road density standards and mapping techniques.

These workshops include explanations of sample field data sheets, covering everything from the type of closure in place to the potential ecological effects of the road. Data sheets can be modified to include region specific concerns about particular types of wildlife, hydrologic effects of roads, off-road vehicle use, etc.

Inventory workshops also teach about the laws that require agencies to close roads. And they train activists to watchdog agencies to ensure that roads are closed properly, by ripping and reseeding the road rather than simply putting up barriers (a method past inventories has proven ineffective.

"I learned direct evidence of what roads can do to watersheds- rather than just stating that roads are bad, I now have ways of evaluating exact cause and effects."
-Montana restoration workshop participant

Road Restoration Workshops
Developed in Spring 1996, our road restoration workshops focus on specific on-the-ground techniques for effectively removing roads and restoring terrestrial and hydrologic conditions. These workshops are packed with technical information and skills for assessing the ecological problems caused by roads and then understanding appropriate methods for treating these problems.

Road restoration workshops are tailored to the specific audience that is interested in learning about road obliteration, especially hydrologic road closures. For example, a workshop could focus on training heavy equipment operators for road ripping, or it could focus on teaching activists to assess agency proposals for flaws that may lead to worsened, rather than improved ecological conditions.

Wildlands CPR contracts with experts in the field of road restoration to conduct these trainings. They are therefore more expensive than our regular road inventory training workshops, and require longer lead time to ensure that we can find an appropriate location for the workshop and that the experts are able to lead it.


Road Prevention Strategy Workshops
Our strategy workshops were developed in the winter of 1995/96 to deal with certain regional issues that were more focused on road prevention that road removal. It is, after all, easier to prevent a new road then to rip it out after it has been built.

The focus of these strategy workshops is twofold: 1) To develop a regional road-fighting coalition of activists; and 2) To discuss legal, scientific and public participation/outreach strategies that can help prevent the proposed roads. These workshops necessarily involve more group participation than the others because we are brainstorming and developing strategies for specific rod proposals. We depend on the interaction between activists, lawyers, scientists, and others to come up with strategies that are scientifically and legally sound, as well as strategies to increase public opposition to new road developments in wildland and native ecosystems.

Monitoring and Surveying Resources: downloadable inventory forms for your use, click here.

Prices vary depending on location and type of workshop; please call 406-543-9551 or email.


Slide Show Toad
Our slide show, "Why Didn't the Toad Cross the Road?" graphically explains the ecological impacts of roads. We have presented the slide show to hundreds of people from Anchorage to Seattle to Boston.

Our presentation is adaptable to different forums and audiences. However, each presentation covers the following key topics:

• Overview of the ecological impacts of roads and motorized recreation
• Introduction to laws and regulations limiting roads on public lands
• Introduction to road removal and ecological restoration
• Success stories: examples of successful road-fighting campaigns
• Opportunities for citizen involvement

We encourage interaction, questions and discussion. By planning our presentations in conjunction with local groups, we can address local issues, and plan follow up meetings or workshops. We also have a slide show package available we loan and sell to University professors and activists throughout the country.

Prices: $125 sale; $25 rental (includes brochures and literature)

"The presentation was striking. It provoked great interest among the students."
-William Rodgers, Professor of Law at the University of Washington

Database
Wildlands CPR continues to maintain and update a bibliographic database of over 12,000 citations documenting the physical and ecological effects of roads and off-road vehicles. In the U.S. alone, there are 6 million kilometers of public roads and over 36 million registered off-road vehicles. We compiled this bibliography to help people access relevant scientific literature on erosion, fragmentation, sedimentation, pollution, effects on wildlife, aquatic and hydrologic effects, and various other up-to-date information on the impacts of roads and off-road vehicles. Search the database here.

"WCPR's reference texts...greatly facilitated our literature search efforts to document road impacts on wilderness resources. Such information significantly improves our program to restore to a natural condition over 70 miles of backcountry roads."

- Kim Crumbo, former Wilderness Coordinator, Grand Canyon NP

Website
Our web site features the latest in road and ORV resources, including:

• Educational materials
• An ORV Information site
• Current and archived issues of the Road RIPorter
• Current and archived issues of Skid Marks
• Information and order forms for The Road Ripper's Handbook and Guides
• Bibliographic Database