Ask the expert: Why roadless forest protections matter

More than 4.2 million miles of public roads crisscross the lower 48 states — enough to reach the moon and back almost nine times. This vast network of roads spiderwebs its way across the contiguous U.S., leaving only about 5% as a roadless area or wilderness. These road-free areas are now under threat from the Trump administration’s proposed rollback of the 2001 Roadless Rule.

Mariah Meek is an assistant professor for Michigan State University’s Department of Environmental Science and Policy Program. As a conservation biologist and molecular ecologist, she is interested in understanding the ecological and evolutionary processes that generate and maintain diversity within and among populations.

Here, Meek explains why roadless national forests are vital for protecting wildlife, clean water and outdoor recreation, and what could be lost if longstanding federal protections are rolled back.

What is the Roadless Rule, and what is its goal?

The National Forest Roadless Area Conservation Policy, better known as the Roadless Rule, was issued in January 2001 by President Bill Clinton. The rule prohibits new road construction, maintenance and commercial logging in designated roadless areas within the National Forest System. It applies to over 58 million acres across the country, excluding Idaho and Colorado, which have their own state-specific roadless rules.

The primary goal of the Roadless Rule is to maintain forest health and productivity for future generations.

Why does the government want to roll back the 2001 Roadless Rule?

The Trump administration said rescinding the rule would remove prohibitions on road construction and logging on nearly 59 million acres of national forest, arguing that the rule slowed economic development.

In Congress, another effort is underway to try to change the law through an amendment to the Wildfire Prevention Act. That change, if approved, would both remove the Roadless Rule and prevent the U.S. Forest Service from reinstituting it in the future, despite overwhelming public support for the rule.

What are the consequences of expanding roads into roadless forests?

Roads enable invasive weeds to spread by being carried on vehicle tires and deposited in exposed soils, erode sediments into streams and fragment habitat that wildlife rely on. Vehicles directly kill and injure animals through collisions. They occasionally start fires, too. A recent study found that fires are more likely to start in areas with roads than in areas without.

Studies show that road noise displaces wildlife, increases stress and can affect wildlife behavior patterns at distances of over a mile from the road.

And roads don’t just cause problems for species on land. Most roads cross streams and rivers, which requires building a way for those waters to keep flowing under the road using structures called culverts. While culverts can be designed to allow fish to pass through and maintain ecological connections, they are rarely built to do so. This leads to declines in the health of fish populations and can leave some species locally extinct.

Why are roadless areas important for conservation?

Preserving roadless areas has value for environmental health, clean water, wildlife survival and people’s own well-being. Inventoried roadless areas are among the most ecologically intact and wildest places left in the United States, yet — unlike Wilderness Areas and National Parks — there are no signs acknowledging their boundaries when you enter one.

Most are part of larger ecosystems, directly adjacent or ecologically connected to better known national parks and wilderness areas. Removing Roadless Rule protections would erode ecological buffers to these more famous protected lands.

For some species, roadless areas protect critical core habitat. For instance, over half the suitable habitat for the relictual slender salamander, a critically imperiled species native to the Sierra Mountains of California, occurs in a roadless area. Nearly 40% of Mount Pinos lodgepole chipmunk, an imperiled subspecies of the lodgepole chipmunk, also live in roadless areas in California.

Reseach shows that every formal roadless area provides habitat for at least two wildlife species of conservation concern — those facing risks to their long-term survival — with the median roadless area supporting 10 of these imperiled species. Some Arizona roadless areas contain habitat for up to 62 of these species.

Roadless areas also protect watersheds that supply drinking water to 47 million Americans. Without this protection, these watersheds would still provide water, but their long-term health and hydrological sustainability could be compromised if roads block stream flow and increase sediments flowing into waterways. The result can be higher costs for water purification.

Answers are excerpts from an article originally published in The Conversation.