Angeles Volunteer Association
HOME | NEWS
RELEASES | JOIN US
CURRENT ANNOUNCEMENTS AND NEWS RELEASES
SOURCE: Forest Service, January 4, 2001
FOREST SERVICE ANNOUNCES NEW ROAD POLICY
WASHINGTON, Jan. 4, 2001 USDA Forest Service Chief Mike Dombeck today approved the
agencys new forest road
management policy, which will rely heavily upon scientific analysis and public involvement
at the local level to provide a road
system that is safe, responsive to public needs, environmentally sound, affordable and
efficient to manage. The policy was sent
today to the Federal Register for publication.
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.
It shifts the agencys policy from developing its transportation system to
managing its transportation system in an environmentally and financially responsible
way.
The Forest Service has a mounting $8.4 billion maintenance and reconstruction backlog and
receives only about 20 percent of the annual funding needed to maintain the existing
380,000-plus mile road system to environmental and safety standards. The dramatic shift in
public use of national forests over the years led the Forest Service to find a new
approach to deciding the appropriate extent, use and standards for the forest road system.
About 15,000 logging vehicles use forest roads dailyabout the same number as in
1950. In contrast, an estimated 1.7 million vehicles travel forest roads for recreation on
a daily basis, which is 10 times greater than in 1950.
We need to work better with local people to make decisions about their forests
local roads, said Dombeck. This policy will help us bring communities together
to make common sense decisions in the best interest of the land about the roads we should
keep, those we should close and those we may want to convert to other uses, such as
walking trails.
The policy addresses all roads over which the Forest Service has jurisdiction and sets
official definitions for road management terms. In addition, the policy gives interim
requirements for inventoried roadless areas and contiguous unroaded areas.
The policy is a result of an extensive public involvement process that began in January
1998 when the Forest Service announced its intent to revise its road policy. At the same
time, the agency issued an interim rule that temporarily suspended road construction and
reconstruction in certain unroaded areas on national forests and grasslands. The agency
received a record number of commentsmore than 130,000. The interim rule gave the
agency a time out to develop a new road management policy and analytical
tools. The Forest Service received approximately 5,900 comments when it released its
proposed road management policy in March. The agency is currently working on a separate
policy that protects inventoried roadless areas on National Forest System lands.
More information on the road management policy can be found at
http://www.fs.fed.us/news/roads.
RETURN TO:
News Releases
AVA Home Page