What We Do

Program Updates

Get With the Program! Learn about what Wildlands CPR staff is up to this quarter-we will update this section with current news, events, campaigns and accomplishments so you know where your donations and our efforts are going.

Want to see what we've been up to? Visit our Road RIPorter page. Under "Article Type" scroll down to "Get With the Program: Program Updates" then click 'Filter'. Even we're excited about all the great work we've accomplished!

Resources

During our first 10 years, Wildlands CPR focused on creating resources and strategies for grassroots activists and agency staff to promote watershed restoration and to stop off-road vehicle (ORV) abuse.  While we continue to develop and promote effective resources, we also now run national policy campaigns to improve management. 

Workshops

Since our workshop program began in 1995, Wildlands CPR has trained nearly 1,250 activists and agency employees to: 1) monitor and inventory system and non-system roads and motorized routes; 2) prevent new road construction; and 3) understand and promote road removal. We've sponsored workshops in Alabama, Alaska, Alberta (Canada), Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, North Carolina, South Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania and Washington (we've held multiple workshops in many of these states),

Bibliographic Database

In 1995 we contracted with conservation biologist Reed Noss to create a bibliographic database on the ecological effects of roads and ORVs.  The first version consisted of more than 5000 citations, and was accessed by every public land management agency in the U.S., in addition to activists and other resource managers across the country and the world.  We update that database every other year, and it now has more than 20,000 citations.

Publications

In the mid-90s we developed and distributed legal guides to challenging road construction and ORV use, and published a guide to Road Removal that has been used to train heavy equipment operators, vocational students and others in road decommissioning practices.  In 2003, we published, “Investing in Communities, Investing in the Land,” the first national economics assessment of the potential for green job creation through a national road removal program. In 2007 we published “Six Strategies for Success,” a landmark report on effective enforcement of ORV use. This report has become a handbook for many ORV managers, has been cited multiple times in Congressional testimony, and was updated in 2009.  And finally, our most recent report, “Best Management Practices for Off-Road Vehicle Use on Forest Lands,” is also regularly used by land managers and will be included (along with Six Strategies) in a new Forest Service (FS) national guide for ORV management. 

On the Ground Management

In addition to reports and resources, we have engaged in on-the-ground management, such as developing and implementing a five-year citizen-based wildlife-monitoring program (2005-2009) about how wildlife respond to road decommissioning on the Clearwater National Forest (ID).  In 2010 we switched our monitoring emphasis to Legacy Roads and Trails implementation and effectiveness and have collected baseline data and set up permanent photo points on projects on six forests in MT and ID.  In addition, in 2009 we entered into our first cost-share agreement with the FS to inventory roads and document road conditions as they collect data for their minimum road system analysis.  That agreement was expanded in 2010.

In 2010 we also began a new program, monitoring watershed restoration projects funded through the Legacy Roads and Trails Remediation Initiative (Legacy Roads and Trails/LRT). We are conductig effectiveness monitoring (pre- and post-project) of Legacy Roads-funded restoration work in six national forests in Region One of the Forest Service: the Kootenai, Lewis and Clark, Gallatin, Clearwater, Helena, and Lolo. In 2010 we collected needed baseline data (vegetation, wildlife use, hydrology) on roads scheduled for reclamation, while various nonprofit partners and volunteers assisted. 

In 2011 Wildlands CPR and our partners will collect post-treatment data on the sites where we collected baseline effectiveness data during the summer of 2010. We are again working with local grassroots NGOs to organize volunteers to assist in monitoring efforts and conduct hands-on restoration.  The Yaak Valley Forest Council, Friends of the Clearwater, a new partnership in Canada with the Hawkins Creek Stewardship Committee, and a student from the University of Great Falls will assist in collecting wildlife information. Additionally, we will conduct field trips with the University of Montana Wilderness and Civilization class, and the Montana Conservation Corps. Volunteers will learn about our road reclamation and associated monitoring, while also helping improve revegetation success by pulling weeds, and planting trees, willows and dogwoods.

Policy

Wildlands CPR is also engaged in land management policy.  For example, in 2000, we submitted a legal rule-making petition to the FS to overhaul ORV management.  That petition was the catalyst for the Forest Service’s 2005 national Travel Management Rule requiring all national forests to limit ORVs to designated routes only and effectively banning cross-country travel as each forest adopts its new travel plan.  Since then Wildlands CPR has co-led, with The Wilderness Society, a successful national campaign to influence the required forest-by-forest travel planning.  As a result so far (with 47 decisions still to come as of 2011), the FS removed 7,890 miles of roads and motorized trails from the designated travel system, and refused to designate 28,679 miles of user-created routes.

In addition, we lead the Legacy Roads and Trails campaign, which has resulted in $225 million in new FS funding over the past four years for watershed restoration related to road management. In the first three years of the program ($180 million) the agency improved 1,408 miles of fish habitat, decommissioned 3,703 miles of roads, and improved 1,656 miles of trails, among other accomplishments.