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Difficult Decisions About Roadless Areas

© Kenneth Friedman

Environmental issues are never black and white. Typical of such issues these days is the need of the U.S. Forest Service, which is in the Department of Agriculture - USDA) to come up with a plan for long-term protection and management of unroaded portions of inventoried roadless forest areas.

On January 12, 2001, the USDA published a final rule scheduled to take effect in early March 12 but the deadline was extended until May so the new Administration could review the rule. During this time, eight lawsuits were filed against the January rule. In one case, the Idaho District Court enjoined the Forest Service from implementing the "forest planning rule that addresses the inventory and evaluation of roadless areas during the forest plan revision process." This injunction is under appeal.

Because of the legal controversy, the Secretary of Agriculture wrote a memo that said "the Forest Service is committed to protecting and managing roadless areas as an important component of the National Forest System" and that "the best way to achieve this objective is to ensure that we protect and sustain roadless values until they can be appropriately considered through forest planning." The Forest Service has solicited public comment on the Secretary's Interim Directive.

Now here is the complicated part. While Agriculture will accept any kind of public comment, it is particularly interested in answers to 10 questions, for which you and I as average citizens probably have no answers. The questions show you why we need nongovernment organizations, academics and other experts who can study the issues and make, we hope, intelligent answers to the questions.

Here are the questions, brazenly adapted, paraphrased and quoted from the Agriculture web site . See which ones you can answer.

1. What should be the role of local forest planning . . . in evaluating protection and management of inventoried roadless areas?

2. What is the best way for the Forest Service to "work with States, tribes, local communities, other organizations, and individuals in a collaborative manner to ensure that concerns about roadless values are heard and addressed through a fair and open process?"

3. "How should inventoried roadless areas be managed to provide for healthy forests, including protection from severe wildfires and the buildup of hazardous fuels as well as to provide for the detection and prevention of insect and disease outbreaks?"

4. "How should communities and private property near inventoried roadless areas be protected from the risks associated with natural events, such as major wildfires that may occur on adjacent federal lands?"

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