While no decisions to close roads or change road maintenance jurisdiction are in the immediate future, the U.S. Forest Service Superior National Forest (SNF) has been in the process of gathering information from the public about what roads it would most “likely need” or “likely not need” for its Roads Study as mandated by 2005 Travel Management Rule.
All national forests in the United States are required to complete this study by October 1, 2015, said Lori McIntyre, civil engineer for SNF.
“No near term changes to existing forest road status will occur as a result of this study,” said McIntyre. “Modifications in the forest road system will not occur without future, in-depth environmental analysis and public engagement consistent with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).”
“Nationally, road maintenance budgets have declined significantly over the last 10 years and the Forest Service is not receiving the funds required to maintain all the existing roads,” said McIntyre.
The SNF has completed an initial assessment of all of its 2,500 miles of roads using a science-based, interdisciplinary approach in assessing “risks and benefits” associated with each road, McIntyre said.
“The study is an information gathering exercise only and no decisions are being made to close roads or change road maintenance jurisdiction,” she said.
In February the Forest Service will publish a map showing roads identified in the study as possibly “likely not needed” and sometime in the future the public will have an opportunity to review the map and provide comments. When the map becomes available it will be posted on the Superior National Forest’s website and will be available at the local district offices in Grand Marais and Tofte.
Nationally the Forest Service has more than 380,000 miles of roadways under its jurisdiction. Originally forest roads were constructed for loggers so they could harvest and truck wood to sawmills. Today roads are still used for timber harvesting, but many people use them for recreation purposes (hiking, biking, skiing, snowshoeing, hunting, etc.) as well as for mining, and driving for pleasure.
In the year 2000 the Forest Service had a backlog of $8.4 billion in maintenance and reconstruction projects and was only receiving 20 percent of its annual maintenance funding needed to keep up roads to environmental and safety standards.
According to the Forest Service, it also must deal with more than 60,000 miles of unauthorized roads on national forest lands that do not meet technical standards and may pose danger to the environment and pose potential safety threats to the users.
Funding for road maintenance has been continually slashed. In 1988, the Forest Service received more than $297 million to plan, reconstruct, construct, and maintain roads. Ten years later it received $187 million to accomplish the same things.
The policy the Forest Service adopted in 2001 does not mandate closure of specific roads, but leaves these decisions to be made at the local level. The policy itself also does not close roads, but establishes a framework for implementing a project, watershed or forest level analysis and public process to determine the Forest Road System needed for resource management, protection, and public uses of National Forest System lands as identified in forest plans.
Before any decision to decommission a road is made, a thorough roads analysis will take place.
Will the policy create new unroaded areas?
According to the Forest Service, unroaded areas of various sizes already exist throughout the National Forest System. The policy itself will not create any more. However, the policy does allow for creation of roads in unroaded areas.
History
On January 4, 2001, then U.S. Forest Chief Mike Dombeck approved the new forest road management policy.
“The new road policy will improve public access to the forests we all love while diminishing the risks of erosion and water quality degradation,” said Dombeck at that time. “It shifts the agency’s policy from developing its transportation system to managing its transportation system in an environmentally and financially responsible way.”
While the shift in policy was dramatic, the Forest Service took a look back and noted changes in usage to come up with a new plan.
Currently about 15,000 logging vehicles use forest roads daily— about the same number as in 1950. Meanwhile, an estimated 1.7 million vehicles travel forest roads for recreation on a daily basis, which is 10 times greater than in 1950.
Dombeck said, “This policy will help us bring communities together to make common sense decisions in the best interest of the land and the roads we should keep, those we should close and those we may want to convert to other uses, such as walking paths.”
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