Road Riporter 7.1

Spring Equinox 2002. Volume 7 # 1

The Quarterly Newsletter of Wildlands Center for Preventing Roads

From Bicycles to Board Feet: By Dave Havlick

Inside…

A History of Public Land Roads

Down the Road…. Page 2 Bicycles to Board Feet, by Dave Havlick. Page 3-5 Depaving the Way: Tears for Isis, by Bethanie Walder. Page 6-7 Policy Primer: Roads Analysis Process, by Marnie Criley and Amy Chadwick. Page 8-9, 20 Odes to Roads: Walking, 140 Years after Thoreau, by Dan Flores. Page 10-11 Wildlands CPR Annual Report. Page 12-13 Get With the Program: ORV and Roads Programs updates. Page 14-15. Above photo by Dave Havlick.

Biblio Notes: Shake, Rattle & Roll, Understanding Seismic Testing, by Erich Zimmermann. Page 16-17 Regional Reports & Updates. Page 18-19 New Resources. Page 19 Activist Spotlight: Gary Macfarlane, Page 21 Around the Office. Page 22 Resources & Membership. Page 22-23

Check out our website at: www.wildlandscpr.org

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Wildlands C Center for P Preventing R Roads

In February, conservationists, loggers and the Forest Service were forced into mediation over proposed “restoration” logging in the Bitterroot National Forest. Shortly thereafter, a group of 70 conservationists, forest practitioners and community forestry advocates gathered outside of Spokane, Washington to discuss forest restoration. Five years from now, it is quite possible that we will view this second restoration summit (the first was a year ago) as a watershed event in conservation activism — but that all depends on how well we are able to develop and maintain these new relationships. While we are working to develop these relationships, we are also promoting the restoration principles developed after the first restoration summit. These principles guide our understanding of what is appropriate restoration on national forests, especially as it pertains to logging. In addition, we hope these principles demonstrate that road removal is a viable and important component of wildland restoration. For more information about the principles, please contact Marnie in our office. Starting with this issue of the Road-RIPorter, we intend to provide you with more information about what we’re actually doing out there on the ground. For the last seven years, Wildlands CPR has made the Road-RIPorter a showcase of other activists and their work around the country; we’ve presented tools to fight off-road vehicles and roads, we’ve shared your successes and challenges, and we’ve offered the philosophical underpinnings of wildland restoration through road removal. Don’t worry, we’re not going to drop any of that stuff. Instead, we’re going to add more tools — like the policy primer — and we will keep you posted about our proactive work. With every issue, we will include columns about our roads and ORV work — written by the people who are actually doing that work. We hope this keeps you informed about opportunities we see for fighting ORVs, promoting road removal, and the challenges we face. On that note, we’ll open this newsletter by listing Wildlands CPR’s six core principles. Hopefully this will give you a better sense of the way we frame and prioritize our work. As always, if you have comments or thoughts, please get in touch with us. Wildlands CPR’s strategies integrate conservation biology, activism and law to:

Photo by Edgar van der Grift.

1. Define and implement cutting edge public policy strategies to prevent, close and revegetate roads and limit motorized recreation; 2. Link and coordinate networks of activists and activist groups — helping form and organize effective coalitions; 3. Train citizens to prevent, close, and revegetate wildland roads and limit motorized recreation, using sound biological and legal information; 4. Be a national clearinghouse, providing citizens with the tools, research and activist strategies needed to prevent, close or remove environmentally damaging roads and limit motorized recreation in wildland ecosystems; 5. Inform the public about the environmental damage caused by roads and motorized recreation and how to influence public land management decisions; and 6. Promote scientific research on road ecology, road removal and off-road vehicles.

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Main Office P.O. Box 7516 Missoula, MT 59807 (406) 543-9551 [email protected] www.wildlandscpr.org Colorado Office — Jacob Smith 2260 Baseline Rd., Suite 205 Boulder, CO 80302 (303) 247-0998 [email protected]

Wildlands Center for Preventing Roads works to protect and restore wildland ecosystems by preventing and removing roads and limiting motorized recreation. We are a national clearinghouse and network, providing citizens with tools and strategies to fight road construction, deter motorized recreation, and promote road removal and revegetation. Director Bethanie Walder Development Director Tom Petersen ORV Policy Coordinators Jacob Smith, Tom Platt Roads Policy Coordinator Marnie Criley NTWC Grassroots Coordinator Lisa Philipps Program Associate Jennifer Barry Newsletter Dan Funsch & Jim Coefield Interns & Volunteers Carla Abrams, Joanne Bernard, Derek Goldman, Benjamin Hart, Maureen Hartmann, Colleen Lux, Jennifer Sutton, Erich Zimmermann Board of Directors Katie Alvord, Karen Wood DiBari, Dave Havlick, Greg Munther, Cara Nelson, Mary O'Brien, Dan Stotter, Ted Zukoski Advisory Committee Jasper Carlton, Dave Foreman, Keith Hammer, Timothy Hermach, Marion Hourdequin, Kraig Klungness, Lorin Lindner, Andy Mahler, Robert McConnell, Stephanie Mills, Reed Noss, Michael Soulé, Steve Trombulak, Louisa Willcox, Bill Willers, Howie Wolke © 2002 Wildlands CPR

The Road-RIPorter, Spring Equinox 2002

From Bicycles to Board Feet: A History of Public Land Roads By Dave Havlick The Forest Service took to roads a bit more slowly. Recreational tourism was tangential, at best, to the agency’s mission of securing favorable water flow and providing a continuous supply of timber to a growing nation.i Staffed primarily by trained foresters, the Forest Service dedicated itself early on to a management philosophy of sustainably using the natural resources of the country’s forests. A handful of roads already existed on national forest lands at the time of their designations — and the agency built or improved more roads each year — but in its early days the Forest Service generally lacked the incentive to build a great number of smooth, easily traveled roads.ii In the agency’s view, roads served utilitarian purposes and little more. It would build roads on a limited basis, as foresters needed them to access timber or to help manage sprawling administrative units. By the early 1920s, however, motorized travelers had so overwhelmed roadsides and private lands that car camping tourists were spilling onto the national forests.iii In 1912, one dozen stalwart motorists managed to drive across the country; by 1921, transcontinental motor trips numbered 20,000.iv By 1922, the New York Times estimated that of the 10.8 million cars registered in the United States, five million would be used for camping.v The Forest Service soon realized that recreational demand of its lands required some response. In 1920, Forest Service Chief Henry S. Graves published an article in American Forestry entitled, “A Crisis in National Recreation.”vi Written at the close of his tenure with the Forest Service, Graves’ article partially reflected his agency’s growing concern over the newly-formed National Park Service. The crisis he identified, though, was the exodus of urban automobile tourists pouring into national forests and parks. To Graves, the subsequent commercialization of national park lands — and by extension, the blurring of lines between parks and national forest lands — presented an alarming trend. In Graves’ view, national forests were the proper storehouse for the country’s natural resources and recreation was becoming just that: a valuable resource. Five million car-camping tourists represented money and power too great to ignore. National parks, on the other hand, ought to be kept apart from commercial exploitation.vii In other words, national forests should be used, whether for recreation or timber extraction, and national parks should be preserved. Regardless of Graves’ concern as a “friend of the National Park System,” both agencies would find cause for further roadbuilding on their lands. The Forest Service could capitalize on the recreation resource, while the Park Service wanted to boost its constituency and provide roads for the enjoyment of visitors. Graves’ article is noteworthy for more than its whispers of agency rivalry. It represents one of the first acknowledgments that the Forest Service would concern itself with recreation. And significantly, according to Graves, recreation was intimately linked with roads: “...recreation has an important place in the demand for a large program of road improvement and extension.”viii Later in the same American Forestry article, Graves wrote, “Roadbuilding is an important feature of the development of our public forests and parks for recreation.”ix

Excerpted from No Place Distant: Roads and Motorized Recreation on America’s Public Lands, by David G. Havlick. Copyright 2002 by David G. Havlick. Reprinted by permission of Island Press, Washington, D.C. and Covelo, California. All rights reserved. Editor’s Note: This excerpt is from Chapter Two in the book. Chapter One reviews the development of roads in the National Park System.

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— continued from page 3 — Several things happened close on the heels of Graves’ 1920 article to reveal a growing interest in recreation on public lands. First, Congress appropriated more money for forest roads and the Forest Service responded with a more directed road building program than it ever had before. The 1916 Highway Act had directed $10 million to the Forest Service for road building over the next ten years. In 1921, Congress boosted this with an additional $5.5 million for “forest development” roads, such as those used for fire control and

“Leopold, meanwhile, came to a similar position — that certain lands should be protected from roading and development… wild undeveloped lands offered an antidote to the consumerism of outdoor recreationists and society at large.” administrative use, and $9.5 million for “forest highways” to supplement state road systems.x With the passage of the Post Office Appropriations Act in 1919, Congress also granted $9 million to develop and administer roads on national forest lands. The latter amount, prompted originally by rural free delivery mail service and the desire to connect rural lands, effectively shifted a portion of road development out of the farmlands and into the woods. In 1916 there were only 2,795 miles of road on national forest lands; by 1939 the Forest Service reported nearly 140,000 miles.xi Within a year of Graves’ article, the Forest Service also redrafted its manual to recognize recreation as a value of the Forests to be managed in coordination with timber, water, and forage.xii The new crush of motor tourists and roads spurred Forest Service employees Aldo Leopold and Arthur Carhart to press for a new type of land classification, which Leopold called “wilderness.” The simmering interagency rivalry may have played a role in the Forest Service’s willingness to move in a new direction for managing lands. By designating wilderness and primitive areas, the Forest Service could take land preservation a step further than the National Park Service and preserve lands without the trappings of commercial development and penetrating road systems that already characterized national parks.xiii But both Leopold and Carhart made it clear that the threat of roads and motorized recreation, not agency competition, lay at the heart of what moved them to protect lands in a primitive, undeveloped condition.xiv Carhart’s interest in a different and less intrusive management of forest lands came most directly from his concern over shoreline development at Trapper’s Lake, high in the mountains of

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western Colorado. Since 1915, the Term Permit Act had allowed recreational developments on national forest lands.xv These permits were typically operated under 30-year leases and most commonly came in the form of lakeside lodges, cabins, and developed camps. What troubled Carhart about the arrangement, though, was that public lands were being developed and built upon, rendered into commercial goods, and effectively removed from free public access.xvi Carhart favored leaving lands, such as Trapper’s Lake, undeveloped in a primitive condition as a means of protecting public access equitably. Thus lands would remain a public good instead of being parceled out to the privileged, permitted few (and their paying clients). Leopold, meanwhile, came to a similar position — that certain lands should be protected from roading and development — but from a slightly different slant. To Leopold in the 1920s, as with many conservationists today, wild undeveloped lands offered an antidote to the consumerism of outdoor recreationists and society at large.xvii Whereas Carhart spoke against development in order to ensure equal access to public lands, Leopold sought more simply to protect lands from the menace of “automobility;” that is, motorized access and the roads and crowds that invariably accompanied it.xviii Though much has changed in the ensuing years, we need only to look at private partnership agreements and fee programs on public lands today to see that Carhart’s fears may still be realized. Many of Leopold’s concerns over automobility have also reemerged, as motorized off-road vehicles such as motorcycles, all-terrain vehicles, and snowmachines once again threaten to bring a surge of humanity into remote areas known and valued for their solitude.

The Road-RIPorter, Spring Equinox 2002

Footnotes i As cited by Wilkinson, CF and HM Anderson. 1987. Land and Resource Planning in the National Forests. Island Press. Washington, DC. p. 18. ii USDA Forest Service. Roads in the National Forests. Washington DC. May 1988, cites the Weeks Act of 1911 as one reason for roads on national forest lands. The Act allowed for the purchase of private timber lands for conversion to national forests. Many of these private lands were already logged and roaded prior to purchase, so the agency inherited the roads along with the land. iii Belasco, WJ. 1979. Americans on the Road: From Autocamp to Motel, 1910-1945. MIT Press. Cambridge, MA. iv Belasco, p. 72, citing Elon Jessup, The Motor Camping Book. v Belasco, p. 74. vi Graves, HS. 1920. A Crisis in National Recreation. American Forestry. 26 (July) pp. 391-400. vii Graves, p. 393. viii Graves, p. 391. ix Graves, p. 399. x Sutter, P. 1997. Driven Wild: The Intellectual and Cultureal Origins of Wilderness Advocacy During the Interwar Years. PhD Dissertation. University of Kansas. Lawrence, KS, p. 88. xi Sutter, p. 88, citing O.C. Merrill, Opening up the National Forests by road building, Yearbook of the Department of Agriculture, 1917, pp. 521-529. See also, Gilligan, The development of policy and administration of Forest Service Primitive and Wilderness Areas in the western United States,” p. 73. See U.S. Forest Service annual reports for 1916 and 1939 for mileage accounts. The 1939 report noted that more than 50 percent of the roads were of less-thansatisfactory condition. xii Gilligan, JP. 1953. Development of Policy and Administration of Forest Service Primitive and Wilderness Areas in the Western United States. PhD Dissertation. University of Michigan. Ann Arbor, MI, p. 76. xiii Sutter, Driven Wild, p. 92; Allin, Wilderness policy, p. 174. xiv Paul Sutter’s Ph.D. dissertation, Driven Wild, explores this nicely. xv Sutter, pp. 85-86. xvi Sutter, p. 92 xvii Sutter, pp. 97-98. xviii Sutter uses this term to include, “automotive technology, roadbuilding, and other infrastructural provisions which accompanied the automobile.” p. 5.

Unless otherwise noted, all photos for this article are from the Library of Congress, Prints and Photos Division. FSAOWI Collection.

Special thanks to:

Island Press the environmental publisher To order No Place Distant, please call Island Press at (800) 828-1302 or place your order on the Island Press website www.islandpress.org. Hardcover $40.00 ISBN 1-55963-844-3 Paperback $18.95 ISBN 1-55963-845-1

Additional titles on related topics: Return of the Wild: The Future of Our Natural Lands, Ted Kerasote, ed. 2001. Hardcover $25.00, ISBN 1-55963-926-1. Paperback $15.00, ISBN 1-55963-927-X. For the Health of the Land: Previously Unpublished Essays and Other Writings, by Aldo Leopold. J. Baird Callicott and Eric T. Freyfogle, eds. 1999. Hardcover $22.95, ISBN 1-55963-763-3. Paperback $15.00, ISBN 1-55963-764-1. Earth Rising: American Environmentalism in the 21st Century, by Philip Shabecoff. 2000. Hardcover $24.95, ISBN 1-55963-583-5. Paperback $17.00, ISBN 1-55963-584-3.

— Dave Havlick has worked for Wildlands CPR in many capacities: as a Road-RIPorter editor, a researcher, and writer. Dave recently joined Wildlands CPR’s Board of Directors. No Place Distant is his first book.

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Tears for Isis By Bethanie Walder

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t was late and I was packing for a flight at 6:00 the next morning. As soon as I answered the phone I knew something was wrong and was shocked to find out that one of my favorite dogs, Isis, had been hit by a car and killed that afternoon. Crying, I hung up the phone. I found myself crying again as I sat on the plane heading to DC for meetings on preventing new roads and removing the most egregious ones. As I sat there thinking about Isis I found myself thinking about how many animals are killed on roads in the US every year. I couldn’t help but wonder: Who cries for all these nameless, faceless wild animals whose lives are cut short every day by roads and cars?

Photo by Katie Deuel. When talking about road impacts, we tend to focus on the big picture: habitat fragmentation; impacts to aquatic species; air pollution; erosion; hydrologic changes; and large-scale roadkill. And while roadkill statistics are mind-boggling — the Humane Society of the United States estimates that one million animals a day are killed on roads — for most people they are just statistics. Are the numbers that we’ve accepted for roadkill really any different than the numbers of human deaths we accept through risk assessment on chemicals and other toxins in the environment? Numbers turn living beings into objects - it’s when they are no longer numbers, but people, pets or individual wild animals that they become real to us. No one cries for numbers.

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Many of the animals who die on US roads are pets, like Isis, or like my childhood dog Boots, who was hit and killed when he got out of the house during my older brother’s 12th birthday party. But most roadkill are wild animals and birds, not to mention all the invertebrates that are killed daily. We can’t teach our pets, let alone wild animals, to look both ways before crossing the street. Some animals avoid roads, but others must cross them to disperse into new habitat, to get from winter to summer range, or just to find water. We know this, but do we understand what happens when an individual animal is killed because of a road? Do we understand what happens to the animals it leaves behind? Do other animals grieve like humans? Animal behaviorists have long studied emotions in animals, and have documented a recognizable grief response, from dogs to birds to elephants. While elephants are not often the victims of roadkill, other animals are, and many show clear grief responses to the loss of a family member — whether that loss is through predation, dying of old age or being hit by a car. Raccoon mothers for example, have been observed dragging their dead young off the side of the road. Geese have been observed to hang their heads in grief. Within the complex social structure of wolfpacks, grief responses are relatively easy to observe. According to Marc Bekoff from the University of Colorado, the best way to measure grief in non-speaking animals is to observe changes in behavior following a death. These behavioral changes have been observed in many types of mammals, from sea lions and whales to wolves, lynx, raccoons, skunks and antelope. Grieving animals may remove themselves from a group, become edgy and nervous, stop eating, mope around and lose interest in playing, and exhibit other classic grief patterns. It appears that animals do grieve for other animals. Scientists have also looked at similarities between humans and other mammals regarding brain structure and hormonal patterns as related to emotions. For example, rats produce opiates during play, and they have increased levels of dopamine when anticipating play (Bekoff 2000). Animals knowingly seek out pleasure, and similarly attempt to avoid pain.

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From an ecological perspective, we can discuss the effects of habitat fragmentation or roadkill on the viability of a species. If roadkill is particularly high for a species, will it impact that population’s ability to survive? This question has been considered for species from hedgehogs to mule deer to grizzly bears. Scientists can measure the impact of roadkill on specific populations, but are we selling the issue short if we don’t also consider the ethical implications of roadkill at an individual level? Who cries for the wildlife?

Photo by Edgar van der Grift.

We use scientific studies to decide where to place mitigation measures for wildlife, and we use them to determine whether or not the consequences of roadkill are acceptable. Similarly, we use science to determine how many people might likely be killed by chemical pollutants in the air. For humans, we call it risk assessment, and for wildlife, we call it species viability. But when we decide to reduce deer/vehicle collisions it is because the cost in human lives and property is deemed too high, not because the cost of deer lives is deemed too high. Who cries for the deer? We are so wrapped up in living our lives as comfortably and expediently as we can that we fail to consider the impact of our lifestyles on each other and on the planet. Risk assessment for humans is no more acceptable than is roadkill for animals. In both cases, however, we accept a loss of life because it is devalued numerically. In 1997, the state of Montana increased the allowable levels of arsenic in drinking water. The former level was based on a likely risk assessment of 1:1,000,000; the new level was 1:100,000. In a state the size of Montana, allowing more arsenic in the water meant that eight more people would likely die — someone will be crying for those eight sisters, brothers, mothers, fathers, sons and daughters. If animals have complex emotions similar to humans, then are we obligated to assess our impacts on these animals as individuals? The

The Road-RIPorter, Spring Equinox 2002

Endangered Species Act allows us to legally “take” or kill a certain number of individual endangered animals, because it is not likely to result in the loss of the species as a whole. Most often these “takings” are allowed in the name of increased economic development or resource extraction. Federal laws allow the same thing to happen to people through risk assessment. What type of society have we created that values money more than it values life? What type of society could we create that values life over money? Who mourns for the dead? Preventing new road construction prevents new roadkill, just like preventing the construction of toxic chemical plants prevents human cancers and death. Removing existing roads reduces roadkill. In some instances road prevention and road removal will impact only the individual animals whose lives are spared. In other cases, careful road removal can also increase the likelihood of the survival of a species as a whole. As morally cognizant people, however, perhaps it is time to consider the ethics of roadkill in addition to the numbers. Scientists have clear evidence, both neurologically, hormonally and observationally of a grief response in domestic and wild animals of all types. Perhaps it is time to add one more reason to the list of why we should start removing roads and restoring wild lands and wild

“When talking about road impacts, we tend to focus on the big picture: habitat fragmentation, impacts to aquatic species, air pollution, erosion, hydrologic changes and large-scale roadkill.” places. Who cries for the deer, elk, birds, squirrels, possums, bears, turtles, foxes and wolves? Who cries for the one million animals killed on U.S. roads per day? Are they no less deserving of our compassion and of our efforts to make this a healthy and sane planet — for all living things?

References Bekoff, Marc, 2000. Beastly passions. New Scientist. April 29, 2000.

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The Policy Primer is a column designed to highlight the ins & outs of a specific road or ORV policy. If you have a policy you’d like us to investigate, let us know!

Roads Analysis Process: A Tool for Decommissioning Roads on National Forests By Marnie Criley and Amy Chadwick Photos by Amy Chadwick Within the National Forest System Road Management Rule (Roads Policy), the Forest Service calls for an increase in road decommissioning. Decisions on which roads to close and which to reconstruct are guided by the document “Roads Analysis: Informing Decisions About Managing the National Forest Transportation System, publication FS-643.” Every forest is required to complete a forest-wide Roads Analysis Process (RAP) in 2002, and while public input is not required by RAP, it is encouraged. Concerned citizens can and should use this opportunity to suggest ecologically-based road removal on our national forests.

Summary of Roads Analysis Process RAP Objective The objective of roads analysis is to “provide line officers with critical information to develop roads systems that are safe and responsive to public needs and desires, are affordable and efficiently managed, have minimal negative ecological effects on the land, and are in balance with available funding for needed management actions” (p. 2). As stated in the RAP (p. 3), roads analyses are to be based on: 1) Use of the best available scientific information about ecological effects of roads on terrestrial and aquatic systems at appropriate scales; 2) Economics of constructing, reconstructing, maintaining, and decommissioning roads; 3) Social and economic costs and benefits of roads; and 4) Contribution of existing and proposed roads to management objectives.

This policy primer was excerpted from: Critical Review of the National Forest Roads Analysis Process Guidance Document Roads Analysis: Informing Decisions About Managing the National Forest Transportation System Prepared by Watershed Consulting, LLC for Wildlands CPR. The full review and an activist’s guide are available on our website. 8

Line Officers and Interdisciplinary Team Line officers (Regional Foresters, Forest Supervisors, or District Rangers) and an interdisciplinary team commissioned and supervised by the line officer are responsible for conducting roads analyses. The manual states that the interdisciplinary team will be staffed with “appropriate technical experts” but does not specify if these experts will be Forest Service personnel.

Relationship to other Analyses RAP specifies that roads analysis is not a decision process unto itself, but provides information for decisions such as NEPA actions. Roads analysis may be done in conjunction with other analyses, such as watershed analyses or landscape assessments, but does not necessarily replace them.

Adaptive Management This section refers to the opportunity to revise the roads analysis procedure based on feedback from management actions that have been implemented. The roads analysis manual as it currently stands is a starting point, and will undoubtedly undergo modification in the future.

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The Roads Analysis Procedure This section discusses methods and scales of roads analysis. Here the manual describes roads analysis as a framework for periodic reevaluation of roads systems and road management strategies. The six steps in the roads analysis process are as follows:

Step 1. Setting up the Analysis (p. 17-21) The products at this step include a statement of objectives, a list of interdisciplinary team members and participants, a list of information needs, and a plan for the analysis.

ecological, social, and economic considerations for roads analysis. These questions are explained at length in Appendix 1 of the RAP.

Step 5. Describing Opportunities and Setting Priorities (p. 31-33) In this step the line officer(s) and interdisciplinary team use information gathered in previous steps to identify management opportunities, establish priorities, and make recommendations for the existing and future roads system.

Step 2. Describing the Situation (p. 22-23) The products developed during this step are: 1) Map or other descriptions of the existing road and access system defined by the current forest plan or transportation plan, and 2) Basic data needed to address roads analysis and questions (p. 22).

Step 3. Identifying Issues (p. 23-24) The products to be completed at this step are 1) a summary of road-related issues and 2) a description of the status of current data (p.23). This step identifies which issues will have priority and which questions will be answered in the roads analysis. Note: The manual specifies that, while public participation may be helpful at this point, it is not required (p. 23). However, this is the part of the roads analysis process in which public participation is crucial.

Step 4. Assessing Benefits, Problems, and Risks (p. 24-30) The products to be developed in step 4 are: 1) a synthesis of the benefits, problems, and risks associated with the current road system; 2) an assessment of the risks and benefits of entering any unroaded area; and 3) an assessment of the ability of the system to meet objectives (p. 24). Included in the description of step 4 is a list of 71 questions that might be used to assess benefits, problems, and risks, and that pertain to the

Step 6. Reporting (p. 33-36) In this step the interdisciplinary team reports the key findings of the roads analysis. The primary audience for the report includes stakeholders and members of the general public, line officers on the national forest and in the region in which the analysis was done, and technical specialists conducting other analyses in other areas (p. 33).

Appendix 1 and 2 Appendix 1 of the roads analysis manual contains questions about ecological, social and economic considerations to be answered in step 4 of the roads analysis process. Appendix 2 discusses indicators of road hazard for analysis of water/road interactions. The manual relates these indicators to the questions in Appendix 1 to which they may apply. See our web site for a complete critique of these sections.

Conclusion It is encouraging that the road analysis process has been standardized, and that a team of specialists have combined their knowledge to create a process that considers many ecologic, social, and economic issues. However, in order to preserve or improve ecological integrity, the road analysis process must be revised to increase its accountability, ensure that information used in the analysis is scientifically valid and geared toward long-term management, and increase its emphasis on reducing the forest roads network.

— Article continues with fact sheet on p. 20 —

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— Dan Flores is the A.B. Hammond Professor of History at the University of Montana. He publishes primarily on the environmental and art history of the American West, and Native American history. His most recent book, Horizontal Yellow: Nature and History in the Near Southwest (1999), has been a finalist for two prizes. His first book, Jefferson and Southwestern Exploration: The Freeman & Custis Accounts of the Red River Expedition of 1806, will appear in a new edition as Southern Counterpart to Lewis and Clark (2002).

Walking, 140 Years after Thoreau — By Dan Flores

Photo by Bethanie Walder.

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emblematic of wilderness — since I do believe that nature and culture are part of a continuum, the second growing out of the first like moss in the cracks of a boulder. Nor do I accept the thinking that roads are solely the infrastructure of globalism and capitalism, the peculiar footprint of us white folks. I’ve read enough history and archeology to realize that Europeans found no “trackless wilderness” when they came to North America, but a continent anciently inhabited, used, and (in many places) quite densely populated. And traveled. Archeology charts centuries worth of continent-wide exchange routes in the Americas. Turquoise mined in the Cerrillos Hills south of today’s Santa Fe, “Every culture of any consequence has had its New Mexico, for instance, was road networks, and who’d want them all ripped regularly hauled as far distant as the Aztec and Mayan homelands out anyway? I am myself a fan of sports cars edging the Caribbean. The and touring bicycles, for which roads are traders who journeyed on this and other continental roads, like an excellent thing.” American Marco Polos, became famous, mythic, so that even today we still recognize the name (and the image): Kokopelli, the traveling salesman with his pack of goods. Ameriword for Nature, for absolute freedom and wildcan explorers found roads and trails everywhere, ness, as contrasted with a freedom and culture some as “broad and deep as the Cumberland merely civil — to regard man as an inhabitant, or a Road,” others real two-track cart roads made by part and parcel of Nature, rather than a member of Hispanic traders. The most elaborate road system, society.” Why speak “for Nature?” Because “there that of the Chacoan civilization of the Colorado are enough champions of civilization” already, Plateau, truly functioned something like our Forest Thoreau continues. Of course that is as true in Service roads, penetrating stands of ponderosas 2002 as it was in 1862, and you have to suspect it that were cut and hauled for use by distant may have been true for the last 10,000 years or so. commercial centers. It’s not that I want to indulge a simple dualism So we, too, and our roads, are part of a — roads as synchronous with civilization, trails as hen I stop to reflect on roads, and walking as opposed to the thing roads do, which is to enable machines to penetrate the world, I do two things. I go walking, for one. But often before I do I read a few passages of Henry Thoreau, which is a good enough way (to employ a Thoreauism) to start out thinking about many essential things. I have a copy of Thoreau’s Walking that I was lucky enough to be able to buy in his hometown of Concord. This is the famous essay, published the year of his death, that begins: “I wish to speak a

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The Road-RIPorter, Spring Equinox 2002

continental continuum going back thousands of Beyond that hacked-up Plum Creek land the years. Every culture of any consequence has had clearcuts begin to drop away, the forest closes in, its road networks, and who’d want them all ripped and the national forest trail signs start to appear. out anyway? I am myself a fan of sports cars and Initially even these trails — the Cooney Ridge touring bicycles, for which roads are an excellent Trail, the Bitterroot Divide Trail — are old roadthing. beds, and arrows designating “Rock Cr. Rd.” keep But… that said, and duly acknowledged, I appearing on the trail signs. A century ago, rejoin Thoreau on the trail. I’m a biped first and last, an animal, “part and parcel of Nature,” and no one has yet But this is not footpath country. designed a road I prefer to a ten-inch wide footpath In fact, with its patchwork of clearcuts and its through the world. Evolution switchbacked roads slicing and dicing every ridge fashioned us human beings to walk all our live-long days, in sight and bleeding erosion down the slopes, this as any physician (as well as is one of the most industrialized mountain my hale-and-hearty 85 yearold father) will tell you. landscapes I have ever seen. Walking, we came out of Africa, and spread across the globe — with maybe a little assistance from boats — on foot. The world Cleveland Mountain and the Welcome Creek around us is fully alive at a sensory level at that country were mined, so this is a wilderness region pace, and it makes sense to a brain designed for quite literally recovering from industrialization and taking in about three miles in an hour. the roads that accompanied it. The dog and I When I walk out my door in the Bitterroot traverse the humped summit of Cleveland MounValley of Montana, westward I can see the peaks of tain, at 7,280 ft. the highest peak visible in the the largest wilderness complex in the Lower FortySapphires from our home, still on a dim two-track Eight, the Selway-Bitterroot/Frank Church/River of through the beargrass, the lodgepole pines around No Return. Eastward are the Sapphire Mountains, us growing as picturesque as pinons, snatches of closer at hand and more human-scale, and here the yellow that we know is the Bitterroot Valley visible wilderness I look into is the Welcome Creek far below. But finally, a half-mile or so beyond the Wilderness, the smallest and one of the most crest of the mountain, the two-track scars of the recently preserved in the state of Montana. The machines fade and the ancient lure of footpaths edge of the Welcome Creek Wilderness commences stretching away along mountain ridges pulls us about three miles and 3,000 feet above my house, pleasantly, irresistibly, along. Finally, at the so by extension it’s sort of a part of my yard, and wilderness boundary, we are greeted by this sign: we all have an obligation to know our yards well. “Welcome Cr. Tr. Unsafe for Horse Travel Beyond Despite the short straight-line distance, it’s Spartan Cr. — 5.” It’s the revenge of the bipeds; not easy for my dog and me to get to the wilderwe’ve reached country where neither machines ness boundary from the house. On our property nor horses will work! we start out on footpaths, along the trail network And this, I think, is a splendid place to plop we’ve created on the place, and beyond follow down on a log, my feet in a ten-inch pathway game trails across the sagebrush foothills. Soon designed truly for the human animal, and read a enough the deep canyon of Three-Mile Creek few more passages from Thoreau’s Walking. And intervenes, forcing us onto roads. But that’s only this, by chance, is what my eye falls on from Henry the start of the difficulty. Between us and Welthe Radical: come Creek, mostly hidden away from the valley When sometimes I but all too obvious when you walk, is a stretch of am reminded that the ridges owned by a timber company called Plum mechanics and shopCreek. It’s not that walking through Plum Creek keepers stay in their land is difficult. Indeed, it’s ridiculously easy, shops not only all the since the city of Missoula scarcely has more forenoon, but all the thoroughfares and byways. But this is not footafternoon too, sitting path country. In fact, with its patchwork of with crossed legs, so clearcuts and its switchbacked roads slicing and many of them — as if the dicing every ridge in sight and bleeding erosion legs were made to sit down the slopes, this is one of the most industrialupon, and not to stand ized mountain landscapes I have ever seen. As the or walk upon — I think scholars of the visual have told us (as if we needed they deserve some telling), our hunter-gatherer brains don’t know credit for not having all what to make of such scenes, except to urge us to committed suicide long escape. ago. Photo courtesy of Roads Scholar Project.

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Wildlands CPR Annual Report From the impacts of the “energy crisis” on public lands, to the Bush Administration rollback of protections like the roadless rule, to the events of September 11, it’s been a year of adversity and change for everyone in the U.S. Even so, Wildlands CPR feels that we have numerous opportunities for positive change in public lands management and we are pushing for more wildland restoration, more off-road vehicle restrictions and especially more road removal. Read on to learn about our programs and staffing from 2001.

Staff and Board While Board changes happen every year, we also had some significant staff changes in 2001. In Sept. Leslie Hannay left to pursue music and other career ideas, and though we miss her terribly, we are thrilled to have Jennifer (Jen) Barry on board as our new Program Assistant. She’s been keeping us organized and working on membership recruitment and marketing. Ronni Flannery, our staff representative to the Natural Trails & Waters Coalition, also left in September so we hired Lisa Philipps, who moved to Montana from rural Colorado where she had been fighting ORV abuses on public lands. On the ORV front, Jacob Smith decided to pursue work with the Center for Native Ecosystems, an organization that he helped found several years ago. So Jacob went to halftime and is now splitting his job with Tom Platt. Tom and Lisa are both working out of our Missoula office. Finally, we have now spent 6 months looking for a Scientific Coordinator and still haven’t found one. On our Board, long-time directors Rod Mondt and Sidney Maddock both stepped down after being involved with Wildlands CPR since its inception in February 1994. We can’t thank them enough for their 7 years of dedication. Their positions were filled by Dan Stotter and Dave Havlick in early 2002. Dan is a lawyer with Bahr and Stotter law firm in Eugene, OR. In addition to working on environmental cases, Dan was the author of the Road-Ripper’s Guide to OffRoad Vehicles and has been on our advisory committee for years. Dave is a long-time Wildlands CPR affiliate (former

Graphic by Mark Alan Wilson.

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editor of The Road-RIPorter, author of other reports, and former Roads Scholar Project Coordinator for Predator Conservation Alliance). Dave is the author of the Island Press book, “No Place Distant: The effects of Roads and Motorized Recreation on America’s Public Lands.”

Programs Roads In 2001 we brought a stronger balance between our ORV and Roads programs, thanks to the tireless efforts of Marnie Criley, our Roads Policy Coordinator. After getting her feet wet with workshops and the roadless and roads policies in 2000, Marnie advanced our road removal campaigns in many ways in 2001. Marnie was instrumental in organizing the first Forest Restoration Summit in Boulder, CO. From there, she joined the steering committee and helped shepherd through a set of restoration principles, culminating in a follow-up summit in February 2002. In addition, Wildlands CPR became actively engaged with the Alliance for Sustainable Jobs and the Environment (ASJE), again to elevate road removal as a viable restoration option. Marnie now cochairs the New Initiatives Working Group for ASJE, and has spoken at teach-ins for union workers — forging new alliances to develop an active constituency for road removal. Marnie has also been keeping things going on the science front. In August, we discussed prioritizing road removal. With participation from key organizations including Pacific Rivers Council, The Wilderness Society, Predator Conservation Alliance, Sky Islands Alliance and numerous scientists, we began to coordinate our efforts and develop hydrologic and terrestrial based priorities. This process has begun to move forward through a Wildlands CPR funded critique of the Clearwater National Forest’s road removal program as a case study. As soon as the new Science Coordinator is on board, this process will be top priority! In sum, the roads program has evolved to build a broader constituency for road removal while also expanding our scientific understanding of road removal. It’s been an exciting and incredibly busy year, and in 2002, we’ll be adding economic research as well.

Off-Road Vehicles In 2001 we implemented our off-road vehicle program through two distinct avenues: Wildlands CPR program staff and Natural Trails & Waters Coalition (NTWC) program staff. Many of our larger program goals are now being addressed through the Coalition, nonetheless, we maintain independent motorized recreation staff and we implement our own programs to compliment the Coalition’s. For example, we provide policy analysis for members of both Wildlands CPR and the NTWC. We act as a clearinghouse for information and strategies regarding off-road vehicle issues for our members and the coalition, too. And finally, with our particular expertise on Forest Service issues, we are coordinating a campaign to revamp off-road vehicle management on Forest Service lands nationwide. This is the focus of Jacob’s work, while the policy analysis, strategic consultations and workshops have been passed on to his successor, Tom Platt. In the last two years, we have seen a major shift in Forest Service thinking, a direct response to our ORV efforts.

The Road-RIPorter, Spring Equinox 2002

The agency has publicly acknowledged that off-road vehicles must be limited to designated routes. While this is a victory, it also presents a challenge for the future and the focus for our current efforts. How do we ensure that routes are designated through a full and open NEPA process and are based on sound science regarding ecological impacts? The Forest Service appears to favor a process that allows offroad vehicle use to continue on routes that have been created by ORV users without authorization.

Natural Trails & Waters Coalition Natural Trails and Waters efforts were focused on communications and Park Service issues for the majority of the last year and a half — in 2002 we are expanding our efforts to encompass more BLM and Forest Service issues. The Coalition developed excellent communications tools and publications, hosted a lobby week, distributed nearly $60,000 in minigrants for off-road vehicle work, developed a radio advertisement and responded to the needs of grassroots activists. Through Natural Trails and Waters, Wildlands CPR has met one of our primary goals: facilitating a greater understanding of off-road vehicle issues among local and national decision-makers and media representatives.

Clearinghouse Wildlands CPR had a host of student interns in 2001 who completed critical research that we are now providing to activists around the country. We conducted research on forest highways, oil and gas extraction and exploration, helicopter recreation impacts, mitigation efforts and much more. We also upgraded our website and made it more accessible. We published the Road-RIPorter on a bimonthly basis, though with the first issue of 2002 we began a transition to quarterly printing.

Program Expenses $317,091.32 Organizational Development and Fundraising: 15.7%

Organizational Development Wildlands CPR invested in organizational development in 2001 in two ways: first, through our participation in the Combined Federal Campaigns and; second, by focusing on membership development. Jen worked closely with Tommy to increase renewals, promote new memberships, increase distribution of the Road-RIPorter and otherwise promote Wildlands CPR. The board also made a commitment to increasing Wildlands CPR membership. As for the Combined Federal Campaign, this year we have also applied to be a part of numerous state campaigns, including California, Colorado and North Carolina. If you are a state employee in any of those states, or if you are a federal employee, or you know someone who is, tell them to check box # 2380 on their CFC form!

Conclusion In 2001, Wildlands CPR experienced more steady, directed growth. Our staff stayed at about the same size, though we still want to add one more position. Our budget grew by approximately 25%, as did our fundraising. Our membership remained stable, and our issue and program work was challenging but successful. We strengthened the foundation of the Natural Trails and Waters Coalition; we developed relationships with non-traditional allies to promote restoration; we consulted with grassroots groups around the country; we identified and participated in strategic litigation, and we ramped up our efforts to promote road removal as a viable component of restoration. While we experienced setbacks, mostly through the Bush Administration rollbacks on roadless protection and off-road vehicle regulations, we feel strongly that now is the time to promote wildland protection by limiting off-road vehicle abuses and new road construction while simultaneously promoting restoration through intensive on-the-ground road removal. We hope you’ll continue to join us in these fights!

Financial Report Program Income $390,282.93

Administration: 4.1% Roads Program: 21.1%

Resource/Sales: .07% Misc. Income: .01% Membership: 1.24% Interest Earned: 1.98% Contributions: 3.06%

Clearinghouse Program: 8.9%

Motorized Recreation Program: 21.8%

Natural Trails & Waters Coalition: 28.4%

The Road-RIPorter, Spring Equinox 2002

Grants: 93.65%

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Roads Program Update Spring 2002 By Marnie Criley, Roads Policy Coordinator

Welcome to a new feature of the Road RIPorter, the Roads Program Update. This update will appear in each issue to keep you abreast of the newest happenings with Wildlands CPR’s Roads Program.

Roads Analysis Process The Roads Analysis Process (RAP - FSM 7712.1) is a key component of the Forest Service’s new Roads Policy. All forests are required to conduct a Roads Analysis this year to determine the minimum road system needed on their forest. And while public input isn’t required, RAP is the key place where activists should put forth their road concerns and road closure requests. Just this month, Watershed Consulting, LLC out of Whitefish, Montana completed a critique of the RAP for Wildlands CPR. By the time this Road RIPorter is out, that critique should be up on our revised web page. See also this issue’s Policy Primer on RAP (page 8-9).

Clearwater National Forest Project The second part of Watershed Consulting’s contract with Wildlands CPR was to examine the Clearwater National Forest’s (Idaho) road removal program. Watershed Consulting conducted literature reviews, interviews, and field inventory work to assess the obliteration program on the Clearwater National Forest (CNF) and compare road analysis methods used previously on the CNF to the national Roads Analysis Process (RAP). This project is nearing completion and we should have some preliminary results on the web page soon.

Forest Restoration Principles One year ago several organizations, including Wildlands CPR, sponsored the Forest Activist Restoration Summit in Boulder, Colorado. That summit, whose participants included forest activists along with a few key scientists, forest practitioners and community forestry groups, was held to develop ecological principles for forest restoration and address the social and economic components of a progressive restoration agenda. Wildlands CPR was actively involved in the yearlong process of writing these Restoration Principles and putting forth road removal as a key component. The “Citizens’ Call for Ecological Forest Restoration: Forest Restoration Principles and Criteria” is proposed as a national policy statement to guide sound ecological restoration policy and projects. This February, we held a follow up meeting in Spokane, Washington to bring restoration practitioners and community forestry advocates into the dialogue, and to discuss strategy for the Principles.

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Photo by Bethanie Walder. While we didn’t make much headway on the Principles, we did have meaningful discussions about how environmental groups, practitioners and community forestry groups can build trust and work together towards the goal of ecologically and socio-economically sound restoration. By the end of the third day we had committed to following up on this initial effort. This joint work may include appropriations efforts and on-the-ground monitoring of restoration projects. We had some good roads discussions and initiated a roads working group to bring together the strengths of various environmental organizations and practitioners.

Socio-Economics of Road Obliteration Wildlands CPR has become very involved with Alliance for Sustainable Jobs and the Environment, a network of individuals and organizations dedicated to building a world where nature is protected, the worker is respected, and unrestrained corporate power is rejected, through grassroots education, organization, and action. We joined ASJE last spring, and Marnie is now the co-chair of their New Initiatives Working Group, which focuses on forest restoration, primarily in northern California, Oregon and Washington. Marnie will be promoting high skill/high wage road removal jobs as a key component of a restoration jobs economy in the Pacific Northwest. Wildlands CPR also plans on contracting out an economic study of the job creation potential of carrying out a national road decommissioning program as called for in the Forest Service’s Roads Policy.

Upcoming Events for the Roads Program: April 6-7 - ASJE Annual meeting April 18-20 - The National Forest Protection Alliance’s conference “RESTORING PUBLIC LANDS: Reclaiming the Concept of Forest Restoration,” Boulder, Colorado Late June - Roads workshop with Southern Appalachian Biodiversity Project in Asheville, North Carolina

The Road-RIPorter, Spring Equinox 2002

ORV Program Update Spring 2002 Like our sibling Roads Program, Wildlands CPR’s Off-Road Vehicle Program will offer a brief update on the latest happenings in each issue of the Road-RIPorter, our quarterly newsletter.

Tri-States Off-Road Vehicle Plan The Forest Service last summer adopted an offroad vehicle management plan covering nine National Forest units in Montana and the Dakotas. While ostensibly prohibiting cross-country ORV travel, the plan essentially grandfathered all existing routes, whether created legally through a planning process or illegally through repeated and destructive vehicle use. Furthermore, it will be nearly impossible for responsible ORV riders to determine which routes are legal and which aren’t, since the agency decided that legal routes are those that were established before January 1, 2001. There are no maps and no signs to aid in this seemingly impossible attempt at classification. Wildlands CPR and Predator Conservation Alliance were joined by five other organizations in appealing the decision; the Forest Service recently denied our appeal. Our coalition is now considering legal action to force the Forest Service to limit motorized vehicle use to legally designated routes, which would substantially reduce the environmental impacts of ORV use and make responsible riding on these National Forests possible.

BLM Vegetative Restoration Environmental Impact Statement The BLM in October initiated a sweeping Environmental Impact Statement process on vegetation, watershed, and wildlife habitat treatments across sixteen western states. While we appreciate BLM’s interest in evaluating exotic weed problems and restoring native vegetation on a large scale (part of BLM’s stated objective), the agency seems intent on ignoring virtually all of the causes of noxious weed invasion and other impacts to plant communities, instead focusing on controlling problems once they occur. Of course any land manager worth their salt knows that preventing problems, especially problems as insidious as exotic weed invasion, is considerably cheaper, easier, and more effective than trying to repair damage once it has occurred. Yet the BLM has so far refused to consider ORV use, the motorized activities associated with energy development, and other causes of exotic weed spread and other impacts. Wildlands CPR and the Natural Trails and Waters Coalition are working to push the BLM to take advantage of this opportunity to really grapple with how their management decisions affect native plant communities across the West.

The Road-RIPorter, Spring Equinox 2002

Photo by Bethanie Walder.

Big Cypress National Preserve Our battle to save Big Cypress National Preserve in southern Florida from off-road vehicle devastation continues. The Park Service now faces a legal challenge from motorized use groups claiming that the new off-road vehicle management plan illegally restricts their use of the area. While the plan reduces off-road vehicle use and employs several reasonable protections for the fragile swamp ecosystems, it by no means eliminates offroad vehicle access. Settlement negotiations between the ORV groups and the Park Service unexpectedly fell apart in January 2002; the lawsuit is now proceeding. Wildlands CPR joined other members of the Natural Trails & Waters Coalition in intervening in the lawsuit.

Upcoming Events for the ORV Program: March 15 - Deadline for scoping comments on the BLM’s Revised Notice of Intent to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement and Forest Plan Amendments on cross-country motorized travel on the Apache-Sitgreaves, Coconino, Kaibab, Prescott, and Tonto National Forests in Arizona and New Mexico. March 29 - Deadline for scoping comments on the BLM’s “Notice of Intent to Prepare an Environmental Impact Statement for the Conservation and Restoration of Vegetation, Watershed, and Wildlife Habitat Treatments.” April 27 to May 1- Annual ORV Lobby Week with Natural Trails & Waters Coalition in Washington DC. Contact Lisa Philipps ([email protected], or call her at our main office) for more info about participating.

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Bibliography Notes summarizes and highlights some of the scientific literature in our 6,000 citation bibliography on the ecological effects of roads. We offer bibliographic searches to help activists access important biological research relevant to roads. We keep copies of most articles cited in Bibliography Notes in our office library.

Shake, Rattle & Roll Understanding Seismic Testing — By Erich Zimmermann The number of seismic tests for oil and gas conducted on public lands in the United States is increasing, and this should concern anybody interested in conserving wildlife, plants and vegetation, soil, and the very character of these lands. As domestic oil and natural gas exploration increases, geophysicists seek to map and understand underground deposits that may hold valuable hydrocarbon resources. Seismic testing is their preferred method, and one result is a proliferation of linear barriers across the landscape. Seismic testing evolved from the discovery that when earthquakes occur, it is possible to capture the sound waves created and use the data to map geophysical features that lie underground. Much of what we know about the Earth’s core, mantle, and crust is the result of this discovery, and it follows that man-made seismic, or sound, waves can also be used to map subsurface geologic formations and locate stores of oil and natural gas. However, as seismic tests become more prevalent, there is growing concern about their impacts — seismic testing requires intensive cross-country travel, often with vehicles that weigh 60,000 to 80,000 pounds.

How It’s Done To conduct a test using the preferred Three-dimensional (3-D) seismic method, long cables are first laid along a “receiver line.” Next, dynamite blasts or Thumper trucks (also called vibrasise trucks) are used along a “source line” to create what is essentially a man-made earthquake, sending energy into the earth. The energy waves bounce off of the subsurface formations and back to the surface where they are captured by “geophones,” which are connected by the receiver lines to a “doghouse,” or data receiving truck. Knowing the frequency at which the energy is created, it is possible to analyze the frequency of the returning waves and create a map of the subsurface area. An earlier testing method, 2-Dimensional (2-D) seismic, is conducted by placing a receiver line across an area of land, and creating energy along that same line. In other words, the receiver line and the

source line are the same. This creates a crosssectional profile of the underground formations, as data is collected along only one line. 3-D seismic yields a picture that shows a volume of earth, which is much more valuable. In conducting a 3-D test, a number of receiver lines are placed parallel to each other across a landscape. The lines run at an angle (often perpendicular) to the source line1, in a “brick pattern.” To create the necessary energy, two methods are generally employed. In the vibrasise method, four trucks move in tandem along the source line, stop at a predetermined point, lower a self-contained platform, and vibrate in unison, sending energy into the earth. This is repeated hundreds or thousands of times in the course of one test. If dynamite is used, a drill rig creates a “shot hole” (50-100 feet deep) along the source line, into which a charge is placed. The charge is set off to create energy in what is called the “shot hole” method, and this process is repeated over the entire testing area. In addition to source vehicles, ATVs are also used during each test. These are driven along the receiver lines to troubleshoot problems. Clearly, seismic testing is a vehicle-intensive process. In order to collect the most valuable data, it is not possible for the source lines to run along existing roads. With both methods (shothole and vibrasise) it is necessary for a number of vehicles to drive cross-country, causing potentially severe ecological impacts. Under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), federal agencies are required to analyze the potential impacts of proposed activities. In all seismic projects studied for this review, Environmental Assessments (EAs) were conducted, which are less thorough than Environmental Impact Statements (EISs). These documents outline the potential impacts to wildlife, soil, and vegetation, among others, and offer mitigation methods to minimize the effects. A review of EAs conducted by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) for projects in the Moab, UT and Green River Basin, WY areas reveals that BLM findings of no significant impact draw largely on anecdotal evidence and do not rely on verified science or cited references. In these EAs, interviews, internal agency documents, and observations from past projects are used to conclude that the impacts from seismic testing will be temporary and non-severe. In contrast, the documented science on linear disturbances like ORVs and roads is quite extensive, and suggests that long-term damage is occurring.

Photo courtesy of the Southern Utah Wilderness Coalition.

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The Road-RIPorter, Spring Equinox 2002

Ecological Impacts Use of ORVs, for example, destroys habitat and forage for wildlife and disturbs threatened and endangered species. The impacts to soil and vegetation include compaction, which causes erosion and reduced plant growth, as less water is able to penetrate the surface. Ruts may also be caused if vehicles operate when the ground is wet, which can cause even greater problems with compaction and water runoff. The heavy vehicles used in 3-D seismic testing create twotracks that run across the landscape. If these tracks are not eliminated, unauthorized use of recreational ORVs may occur once testing has ended, and the impacts to wildlife, soil, and vegetation will be even more pronounced. ORV use is known to destroy vegetation that serves as natural soil-protective elements, even after one pass of a vehicle (Wilshire 1983). This impact becomes more significant as the number of trips over an area increases (Payne et al. 1983). In arid regions, ORVs have been found to increase water runoff and erosion (Hinckley et al. 1983), a result of soil compaction and decreases in soil porosity and infiltration capacity (Webb 1983). Impacts were found even when use of such vehicles was slight, and the first passes of a vehicle over a landscape were found to be the most damaging (Iverson et al. 1981). It is estimated that recovery from soil compaction and a natural return to bulk density, strength and infiltration capacity make take a century to occur. In addition, invasive vegetative species were found in compacted areas within a few years, but native species were much slower to return (Webb & Wilshire 1980). The impacts of roads, seismic lines and other linear disturbances have a number of impacts on wildlife populations, including individual disruption, habitat avoidance, social disruption, habitat disruption or enhancement, direct and indirect mortality, and effects on population. These impacts have received substantial treatment and attention (Jalkotzy, et al. 1997). Studies also show the dramatic effects that roads have on the movement and mortality of wildlife (Forman & Alexander 1998; Trombulak & Frissell 2000), and the balance of this evidence is so strong that policies have been enacted to reduce road densities in national forests to protect wildlife (Hourdequin 2000). Impacts of seismic testing have been largely ignored. This is starting to change, however, as more attention is paid in areas where the testing is most prevalent, especially Utah and Wyoming. It is important that the lack of understanding and information about the processes and impacts of these projects be solved, and greater public pressure placed on the federal agencies conducting these reviews. Given the documented impacts of ORV use on wildlife, soils, and vegetation, it is imperative that the BLM and other federal agencies pay greater attention to these projects and the effects they are having on our federal lands. It also needs to be determined whether the two-tracks created during seismic testing are used for recreational purposes once testing is completed. The absence of scientific research on these issues is disturbing, and until more study is done, it is hard to justify that these impacts are short-term and unimportant. One way this might be corrected is to force the BLM to conduct EISs when considering seismic projects, which would result in much greater scrutiny and require a higher threshold of scientific evidence before determining that a project will have no impact.

References Forman, R.T.T., and L.E. Alexander. 1998. Roads and their major ecological effects. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics 29:207-231 in M. Hourdequin. Ecological effects of roads. Conservation Biology. 14(1):16-17. Hinckley, B.S., R.M. Iverson, and B. Hallet. Accelerated water erosion in ORV-use areas. In Environmental Effects of Off-Road Vehicles: Impacts and Management in Arid Regions. R.H. Webb & H.G. Wilshire, eds. 1983. Hourdequin, M. Ecological effects of roads. Conservation Biology. 14(1):16-17. Iverson, R.M., B.S. Hinckley, and R.M. Webb. 1981. Physical effects of vehicular disturbances on arid landscapes. Science. 212:915-917. Jalkotzy, M.G., P.I. Ross, and M.D. Nasserden. 1997. The effects of linear developments on wildlife: a review of selected scientific literature. Prep. For Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers. Arc Wildlife Services Ltd., Calgary. 115pp. Payne, G.F., J.W. Foster, and W.C. Leininger. 1983. Vehicle impacts on Northern Great Plains range vegetation. Journal of Range Management. 36(3): 327-331. Webb, R.H. and H.G. Wilshire. 1980. Recovery of soils and vegetation in a Mojave desert ghost town, Nevada, U.S.A. Journal of Arid Environments. 3(4):291-303. Webb, R.H. 1983. Compaction of desert soils by offroad vehicles. In Environmental Effects of OffRoad Vehicles: Impacts and Management in Arid Regions. R.H. Webb & H.G. Wilshire, eds. 1983. Wilshire, H.G. 1983. The impact of vehicles on desert soil stabilizers. In Environmental Effects of OffRoad Vehicles: Impacts and Management in Arid Regions. R.H. Webb & H.G. Wilshire, eds. 1983.

Footnotes 1. Actual cables are placed along a receiver line, but a source line is a theoretical line along which vibrasise trucks will drive or dynamite blasts will be placed to create the energy necessary.

Photo courtesy of the Southern Utah Wilderness Association.

— Erich Zimmermann is a graduate student in Environmental Studies at the University of Montana.

The Road-RIPorter, Spring Equinox 2002

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Comments Needed on Yellowstone Snowmobile Ban

Wildlife Refuge System Commission Gets Pro-ORV Chairman

The National Park Service has just released a new analysis of the impact of snowmobile use on Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks. The Park Service needs to hear from you that it should not The Bush Administration recently appointed back away from its original decision, based on years of study and attorney Bill Horn to serve as the chairman of the overwhelming public involvement, to protect these national treanewly formed National Wildlife Refuge Centennial sures by phasing out snowmobile use in the two parks. Please call or Commission. This Commission, which had its first write the NPS and ask it to CONFIRM the original phase out decision. meeting March 12, is charged with helping to chart The new proposal is based on an environmental analysis which the course of the National Wildlife Refuge System was part of the settlement of a lawsuit by snowmobile makers and for the next century. the states of Wyoming and Idaho seeking to roll back the snowmobile Environmentalists are concerned that Horn's ban. The International Snowmobile Manufacturers Association appointment will make it more difficult to reign in requested the study claiming that the ban had been based on earlier recreational snowmobiling, ATV, and motorboat Park Service research that failed to consider a new generation of use on refuge system lands. As a lead attorney cleaner and quieter machines. In analyzing new data from the representing the International Snowmobile industry, the Park Service rejected claims that snowmobile makers Manufacturers Association, swamp buggy users in are producing cleaner vehicles that will not disturb wildlife or pollute Florida, and the Alaska State Snowmobile Associathe air. The Park Service concluded that much of the information was tion, Horn has consistently challenged government largely unconvincing or dated. decisions that limit ORV use on public lands. The new proposal includes four alternatives: 1) Phase out Other appointed Commissioners include snowmobiles beginning in December, with a full ban effective in the representatives from Walt Disney and Coors winter of 2003-04. 2) Begin phasing out snowmobiles in 2003-04, with Brewing Company. Wildlife refuges have clear a full ban in 2004-05. 3) Cap the number of snowmobiles at 500 and mandate to protect wildlife and their habitat; the make them meet stricter emission standards by 2005. 4) Cap the National Wildlife Refuge System Improvement Act number at 330, require stricter emission standards and require of 1997 clearly states "wildlife and wildlife consersnowmobilers to travel with a Park Service guide. vation must come first." The Natural Trails & Take Action by May 29th: The release of the SEIS begins a public Water Coalition (202/883-2300) plans to closely comment period and public support for the original Park Service monitor Mr. Horn's work on the commission and decision is the only way it will be implemented. Please support the publicize his actions. decision to phase out snowmobile use in Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks by sending your comments via email to: [email protected] or send to: Winter Use SEIS, P.O. Box 352, Moose, Wyoming 83012 by May 29, 2002. Please remind the Park Service that: — Americans want Yellowstone and Grand Teton to remain peaceful places in winter where bison, elk, and other wildlife are not harassed by noisy vehicles. — That snowmobiles in the two national parks continue to cause pollution, make rangers sick, and prevent visitors from hearing the eruption of Old Faithful or enjoying the solitude that Americans expect from their national parks. — That the original, science-based phase out decision should remain in place because it is the only way to adequately protect the nation’s first National Park and nearby Grand Teton national park. Photo by Bethanie Walder. Check out the SEIS at this website: www.winteruseplanning.net/

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The Road-RIPorter, Spring Equinox 2002

Conservationists Challenge Wilderness Vehicle Tours Three conservation groups filed a lawsuit challenging the National Park Service’s decision to authorize motorized vehicle tours in the Cumberland Island Wilderness. (See RIPorter 6.2 cover story — “Drive Thru Wilderness.”) The Island, which lies off Georgia’s southeast coast just north of the Florida border, is the largest undeveloped barrier island on the eastern seaboard. The suit was filed February 11 by Wilderness Watch, Defenders of Wild Cumberland, and Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility. The groups seek to stop the NPS from authorizing motorized tours in the Wilderness, citing a strict Wilderness Act prohibition on the use of motorized vehicles except in rare cases such as emergencies. The suit also alleges that the commercial nature of some tours violates the Act’s limitation on commercial use. While the Park Service operates some of the tours, most are conducted by a private corporation. According to George Nickas of Wilderness Watch, “This is the only place in the country where the NPS drives tourists around in the Wilderness. It sets a terrible precedent for Wilderness everywhere and flies in the face of the Wilderness Act. Congress made it clear that the Cumberland Island Wilderness must be managed by the same rules as all other Wildernesses in the United States. Restrictions, like those excluding motor vehicles, were put in place to achieve this goal. If we allow motor vehicle tours here, then we could have them anywhere in America’s Wilderness.” Wilderness Watch believes that this lawsuit is the first action to challenge the National Park Service on motor vehicle use in Wilderness based on the Wilderness Act.

Wildlands CPR Launches New Web Site See it at www.wildlandscpr.org!

New Study Confirms that Roads Harm Elk The March-April 2002 issue of Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation’s Bugle Magazine details the adverse effects of roads on elk, providing the results of both current and historic research of Jack Lyon and others. The research demonstrates that, although closing roads to motorized access helped elk, bull ratio and herd balance is better in areas that have no roads at all. According to Alan Christensen, the Elk Foundation’s Vice President of Lands, “The data shows that bull elk will live up to 7.5 to 10 years in unroaded areas… In managed areas with road closures, that life span drops to 6.5 years.” These findings parallel what is known for the grizzly bear: even closed and gated roads harm the species. This elk research will help support efforts to limit total road density, protect roadless areas, and restrict motorized access. In order to protect wildlife habitat, Christensen said, “We need to talk about area-wide closures to all vehicles.”

The Road-RIPorter, Spring Equinox 2002

Photo by Rick Konrad.

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— continued from page 9 —

Concerns and Recommendations Regarding the Roads Analysis Process ♦ The roads analysis manual seems to ignore the

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fact that unroaded areas may contain unclassified roads and remnants of roads that still have negative effects on ecological integrity. RAP should place more emphasis on road removal or other decommissioning. Despite the increased emphasis on decommissioning roads in the final rule, the RAP discusses road closure and decommissioning infrequently compared to road construction and reconstruction. The roads analysis document is not consistent in its use of the terms road closure and decommissioning. The document fails to specify clearly what decommissioning means. The roads analysis manual should examine the effects of closure and obliteration separately. Too much power to make final decisions is left to the forest or line officer. External and internal technical review should be required. Data should be ground-truthed. The RAP emphasizes the use of existing data to keep the analyses cost-effective and efficient. However, there are many cases in which existing data is no longer current or where information from a larger scale will not give a realistic portrayal of what the conditions are on the ground. The questions in Appendix 1 pertaining to the effects of roads on the various ecological, social, and economic considerations generally only address the effects of existing roads and the potential effects of new roads. This approach completely fails to recognize the new direction of transportation management described in the Roads Policy, which includes road removal. No guidance is provided to help investigators prioritize roads for obliteration or other forms of decommissioning. Multiple spatial and temporal scales should be emphasized. Once a specific scale is determined for the analysis, issues pertaining primarily to other scales may be ignored. Long-term monitoring and management should be emphasized more in RAP. Long-term economic considerations, such as the long-term costs of road maintenance, and the multi-billion dollar backlog for forest road maintenance, should be included with shorter-term considerations.

analyzed next. Our suggestion to all activists is to get involved at the study stage since the process will be well under way by the time any public workshops are held. 2) Bring up the RAP at any Forest Service meetings, or in regard to any Forest Service projects that involve road construction. Any “new road construction” must go through RAP and any forest plan revisions must include RAP. 3) Provide the Forest Service with information you have on roads that should be decommissioned, including any photo or inventory work you’ve done. This information is particularly critical at Step 3 of RAP. 4) Encourage the Forest Service to give greater consideration to road removal. If you need more information on road removal feel free to contact Marnie Criley in the Wildlands CPR office. 5) Provide the FS with your concerns regarding the RAP. Relate the concerns listed in this summary or check out our website for the complete Critique of the RAP. — Amy is a riparian ecologist and water quality specialist with Watershed Consulting, LLC out of Whitefish, MT

Activist Actions 1) Find out where your local forest is with the RAP. Each RAP must be completed for level 3 to 5 roads (down to gravel/improved dirt) in the next year or two, depending on the forest. Level 1 and 2 (undriveable and unimproved dirt) must be

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The Road-RIPorter, Spring Equinox 2002

The Activist Spotlight is a new feature for The Road-RIPorter. Our intention is to share the stories of some of the awesome activists we work with, both as a tribute to them and as a way of highlighting successful strategies and lessons learned. Please email your nomination for the Activist Spotlight to [email protected]. Gary Macfarlane has been saving trees and protecting wild places from roads and ORVs for more than 20 years. Born and raised in a small town in Utah, Gary spent years with the Utah Wilderness Association, successfully closing areas on National Forest (NF) and Bureau of Land Management lands to motorized recreation. He relocated to the Northern Rockies in 1994 and helped incorporate Friends of the Clearwater (FOC), a hard-hitting group dedicated to protecting the Clearwater National Forest in Idaho. Even in the harsh Idaho climate, Gary practices what he preaches. He doesn’t own a car, but instead bikes 18 miles to and from work each day. Gary and Friends of the Clearwater are working diligently to get ORVs under control on the Clearwater and Nez Perce National Forests. For example, two years ago they found substantial ORV abuse in upper Fish Meadows in the North Lochsa Slope Roadless Area (Clearwater NF), and along with other conservationists were able to pressure the FS to initiate an emergency area closure. In addition, with the help of a mini-grant from the Natural Trails and Waters Coalition, Friends of the Clearwater joined forces last year with the Great Burn Study Group to monitor the Great Burn Wilderness Study Area. They have also monitored Weitas Creek (Clearwater NF), Pot Mountain (Clearwater NF), and Meadow Creek (Nez Perce NF) with a grant from Fund for Wild Nature. All three are roadless areas proposed for Wilderness. Gary’s colleague Chuck Pezeshki explains how Gary’s commitment to careful documentation contributes to his success in fighting ORV abuse: “Gary has a masterful command of both law and policy and he backs up his office work and NEPA review with meticulous ground-truthing. Gary is out in the field looking at stuff to make sure reality matches these documents.” The monitoring reports are now being finalized and will be available in early spring. The Clearwater NF is a travel management fiasco. It’s the main reason why Gary and the rest of FOC are so dedicated to their work. The Forest Service allows motorized use in all recommended wilderness, there’s no travel plan, and the agency simply issues a list of trails open to motorized travel. Unfortunately, the Nez Perce is no better than the Clearwater. Prime areas like Meadow Creek, a 200,000 acre roadless area contiguous to the Selway-Bitterroot, are not motor-free. Gary and FOC have used everything from comments to appeals to litigation to challenge these plans. Illegal snowmobiling in the Selway-Bitterroot and Gospel Hump Wilderness Areas is also a serious concern. Gary notes that some of these areas were previously used solely by foot travel. Enhancements in snowmobile technology in the past few years have opened up these areas: people can now get to places that were previously inaccessible. As a result, sensitive habitat is being impacted. Thanks to Gary’s efforts (along with the folks at Native Forest Network) the FS has at least pledged better enforcement. Gary also inventories roads on the Clearwater NF. Surprisingly, he’s found few ghost roads in this part of the world; indeed the Forest Service has almost all roads on the inventory. The bad news is that lots of roads need to be obliterated. Currently the Clearwater has

The Road-RIPorter, Spring Equinox 2002

Photo by Bethanie Walder nearly 5,000 miles of roads, and the Nez Perce 4,000 miles. The Nez Perce tribe has already helped get roads removed to improve watershed and aquatic habitat on the Clearwater and Nez Perce NFs. Both these forests now have active road obliteration programs. While this is encouraging, Gary points out that intentions to remove roads are thwarted by obliteration programs often packaged with more road building and timber sales! The agencies build new roads to access vegetation (for “restoration” purposes) and then obliterate other roads in the name of mitigating the negative impacts of these new roads, all the while touting this approach as an overall benefit to ecosystem health. While the situation seems grim, Gary is optimistic. His hope is that all of this groundwork will result in regaining some quiet trails and intact ecosystems. He maintains that there is still lots of wild country — motorized use hasn’t overrun every place in the backcountry, and roads are being closed. The plants, water and animals in the region are healthier thanks to his determination. Katie Deuel of the Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative (Y2Y) has worked closely with Gary. She says what makes him such an effective activist is that “his energy comes from a dedication to the land and its critters that’s totally transparent, and it earns him respect from almost everyone he works with — whether they agree with his point of view or not. His mind is always working on several different levels at once — taking in the details while grasping the big-picture ripples. His empowering, lead-by-example style, his humility, compassion and great sense of humor are inspiring, and if you look hard enough, you’ll find a web of motivated activists that connect to Gary in one way or another.” Gary’s unique approach to conservation activism has inspired many younger activists to follow in his footsteps. His dedication and persistence combined with his humility, make him a valuable role model for the next generation of activists. Thank you Gary for all of your efforts on behalf of wild places. Contact Gary at: [email protected]

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Printed Materials (order form on next page)

We’ve Moved!!! On February 1, Wildlands CPR left our cherished, shared office with The Ecology Center to join the ranks of downtowners (ed. note: boy it’s gotten quiet around here!). Though we hated leaving the EcoCenter, we just didn’t have enough space there. So we’ve found a place of our own and we’re quickly filling it up. And don’t worry, we’ve traded character for character, moving from an old grain elevator into the 100 year old Masonic Temple building. It certainly is an interesting and quirky space. And the US office of the Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative is right across the hall, so we still have other activists nearby. Moving is expensive, however, so if you’d like to make an extra donation to help with the expenses, we’d sure appreciate it. In case you’re wondering, our email, snail mail and telephone number/addresses are all still the same — the only thing that’s changed is the fax number, which is now 406-541-5910. So please keep sending your correspondence to our post office box and don’t hesitate to give us a ring. If you’re in the neighborhood, please do stop by — give us a call and we’ll give you directions.

Welcome We would like to welcome six student interns and two new Board members! This semester, we have two students returning to work on projects and four new students. Maureen Hartmann and Erich Zimmermann are both back for more... Maureen will be working on a federal highways ORV funding issue, while Erich will be following up on the excellent research he did last semester related to seismic testing for oil and gas on public lands. In addition, Joanne Bernard, Derek Goldman, Colleen Lux and Jennifer Sutton are working on four other projects, from implementation of the Forest Service transportation policy to an assessment of programmatic EISs. We’re glad to have so much research happening and look forward to sharing the results with our members. On the Board front, we want to thank Sidney Maddock and Rod Mondt for all their hard work since Wildlands CPR was formed. We couldn’t have done it without you! After seven years, though, both decided it was time to step down when their terms expired. We’re happy to welcome Dan Stotter and Dave Havlick as new Board members. Both have a long history with Wildlands CPR and both bring excellent skills to the board. Dan is a lawyer in Eugene, OR and was the author of the RoadRipper’s Guide to Off-Road Vehicles; he has been on our advisory board since it formed. Dave was a former editor of The Road-RIPorter, as well as author of “Roaring from the Past” for Wildlands CPR. He just finished writing a book about the history of roads and off-road vehicles on public lands (see cover story) and currently lives in Durham, NC. Thanks to both Dave and Dan for volunteering their time and energy to Wildlands CPR. And we'd like to give a BIG thanks to Leslie Kaas Pollock, our great Skid Marks line editor!

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Road-Ripper's Handbook ($20.00, $30 non-members) — A comprehensive activist manual that includes the five Guides listed below, plus The Ecological Effects of Roads, Gathering Information with the Freedom of Information Act, and more! Road-Ripper's Guide to the National Forests ($5, $8 non-members) — By Keith Hammer. How-to procedures for getting roads closed and revegetated, descriptions of environmental laws, road density standards & USFS road policies. Road-Ripper's Guide to the National Parks ($5, $8 non-members) — By David Bahr & Aron Yarmo. Provides background on the National Park System and its use of roads, and outlines how activists can get involved in NPS planning. Road-Ripper's Guide to the BLM ($5, $8 non-members) — By Dan Stotter. Provides an overview of road-related land and resource laws, and detailed discussions for participating in BLM decision-making processes. Road-Ripper's Guide to Off-Road Vehicles ($5, $8 non-members) — By Dan Wright. A comprehensive guide to reducing the use and abuse of ORVs on public lands. Includes an extensive bibliography. Road-Ripper’s Guide to Wildland Road Removal ($5, $8 nonmembers) — By Scott Bagley. Provides technical information on road construction and removal, where and why roads fail, and how you can assess road removal projects. Trails of Destruction ($10) — By Friends of the Earth and Wildlands CPR, written by Erich Pica and Jacob Smith. This report explains the ecological impacts of ORVs, federal funding for motorized recreation on public lands, and the ORV industry’s role in pushing the ORV agenda.

Online Resources Visit our Web Site at http://www.WildlandsCPR.org You’ll find educational materials, back issues of The Road-RIPorter (including all our bibliography, legal and field notes), and current action alerts. Also at the site, we’ve got a link to an ORV Information Site with an interactive map-based database on each National Forest’s ORV Policy.

Now available on our site: Ecological Impacts of Roads: A Bibliographic Database (Updated Jan. 2001) — Contains approx. 6,000 citations — including scientific literature on erosion, fragmentation, sedimentation, pollution, effects on wildlife, aquatic and hydrological effects, and other information on the impacts of roads. Environmental Impacts of Motorized Recreation: A Bibliography This is a 5000 citation bibliography of scientific studies, government reports, and related documents on the environmental impacts of motorized recreation. The documents cited here include scientific studies on a wide variety of adverse impacts, including: soil erosion and soil compaction, sedimentation, pollution, wildlife disturbance, habitat fragmentation and degradation, etc. Subscribe to our online list-serves. Check the boxes on the member form and receive Skid Marks and/or our Activist Alerts over email.

The Road-RIPorter, Spring Equinox 2002

Membership and Order Information

Refer a friend to Wildlands CPR! Send us the names and addresses of friends you think may be interested in receiving membership information from Wildlands CPR.

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To help ensure steady support for Wildlands CPR, please consider our new Rip-a-Road-a-Month Club! It’s simple: Instead of a yearly membership fee, a monthly donation can be automatically withdrawn from your checking account. Everyone spends five dollars a month on something frivolous. Why not spend $5 a month or more to protect wild places? Consider this: $5 (a movie ticket) $10 (lunch out) $15 (round of lattes)

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Prices include shipping: for Priority Mail add $3.50 per item; for Canadian orders, add $6.50 per item. International Membership — $30 Minimum. All prices in U.S. Dollars Ask about reduced rates for items ordered in bulk. Check here if you are interested in helping to distribute The Road-RIPorter in your area Check here to receive our ORV and road email newsletter, “Skid Marks,” every few weeks. Check here for our Email Activist List. Please remember to include your email address! Check here for our RIP-Web non-paper option. Get the RIPorter online before it gets printed! Please include your email address!

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The Road-RIPorter, Spring Equinox 2002

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Reprinted with permission from CARTOONS, by Andy Singer.

Non-profit Organization US POSTAGE PAID MISSOULA, MT 59801 PERMIT NO. 569

Wildlands Center for Preventing Roads P.O. Box 7516 Missoula, MT 59807 “Through the medium of roadbuilding, money may be buttered evenly over the whole country” — Rosalie Edge, 1936

The Road-RIPorter is printed on 100% post-consumer recycled, process chlorine-free bleached paper with soy-based ink.