U.S. Forest Service Regulations
Roadless Areas and Transportation Policies

On January 5, 2001, President Clinton announced a National Forest Roadless Area decision that overrides local level land use decisions on nearly 60 million acres of national forest lands in the United States.

Concurrently, the Forest Service issued new regulations on the transportation/roads management policy that encompass management and stewardship of the entire national forest system, not just the roadless areas. In January 2001, the Forest Service released final revisions to the transportation regulations, a revision to the recently adopted forest planning regulations and revisions to the Forest Service manual on road and trail management and planning.

Issues and Concerns

• These regulations embody the fact that politicians – instead of forest managers – are dictating the management of our national forests. In spite of rhetoric about collaborative stewardship, these regulations take forest management away from the professionals and local communities most impacted by national forest decisions.

• The combination of changes will make it extremely difficult, if not impossible, for local level forest managers to reconstruct or construct roads for resource management. This may have serious implications to the ability to accomplish long-term wildfire risk reduction on the 39 million acres of high-risk national forest lands.

• Millions of tax dollars are wasted in years of planning and management of the national forests. The roadless area decision will override millions of dollars in planning and public involvement regarding national forest land management. There are 151 national forests, all of which have prepared forest plans over the past 25 years.

• The documents provided to the public, including the final environmental impact statement, include erroneous maps and incomplete information about the impacts of the regulations regarding roadless areas. Site-specific information about resource values in individual roadless areas and the impacts of maintaining roadless areas are not provided in the final EIS.

• The Roadless Area decision disregards the forest health crisis currently existing on over 50+ million acres of national forest lands and endangers these lands, as well as adjacent private lands, by potentially restricting needed treatments to reduce the risk of catastrophic wildfires. During the 2000 wildfire season, more acres burned in roadless areas than roaded areas in the intermountain west. This decision threatens the Forest Service's ability to meet its basic land stewardship responsibilities.

U.S. Forest Service Regulations
Land Management Planning Regulations

In 1979, the Forest Service issued regulations to guide the development, maintenance and revision of land and resource management plans for units of the National Forest System. Since then, the agency has prepared plans for each of the national forests that guide resource management actions.

In October 1999, the Forest Service issued a proposed rule to change the way it conducts land and resource planning for the National Forest System. The regulations were published on November 9, 2000, in the Federal Register, and are effective immediately. These regulations will guide the management of 191 million acres of public land over the next several decades.

Issues and Concerns

• The final regulations attempt to administratively change the mission and purpose of the national forests. These regulations state that ecological sustainability is the first priority of management of the national forests, and are unlawful due to inconsistencies with the statutory direction of multiple-use and sustained-yield outputs that Congress established for the National Forest System.

• The regulations ignore the current forest health crisis. Procedural requirements in these regulations restrict the ability to efficiently accomplish needed forest restoration and rehabilitation, and reduce the risks of catastrophic wildfire on over one-third of the national forest land area.

• The objection process allows reviewing officers the opportunity to override forest plan amendments and revisions even before those decisions are final. This will discourage local public involvement and collaborative planning when residents recognize their time and involvement means nothing and can be overridden by a simple notice of objection.

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