Mendocino National Forest
Don Amador writes:
There are a growing number of FS staff and partners who are voicing concerns about the issues of Roads is mostly AWOL in current policy statements, etc. when no management takes place when a road is washed out during heavy rains in the winter.
If we take the long view, there was a time when Travel Management planning was the thing.. then I remember Sustainable Recreation seemed to argue that budgets were never going to improve, so roads should be right-sized so the FS could afford to maintain them. Then people (at least in some parts of the country) started using forest roads more during Covid.
There is the idea that roads are bad for wildlife because people use them, but wasn’t Travel Management supposed to settle that (yes, I know some plans are still in litigation)? So does everyone agree that the roads that survive travel management (and various veg projects don’t have permanent roads, so there are probably no new ones) should be maintained?
What’s the status on your local unit, and do you agree that roads need more policy attention?
*************
FOREST ROADS PROVIDE CRITICAL ACCESS TO RECREATION, WILDFIRE, and FOREST HEALTH ACTIVITIES
As a long-time partner that depends on access to Forest Service System Roads and Trails for OHV recreation and post wildfire trail stewardship efforts, QWR appreciates Chief Tom Shultz’s commitment to managed outdoor recreation, resource management, fuel projects, and wildfire mitigation activities.
In fact, the Forest Transportation System functions as the common thread that binds or connects virtually all forest recreation, management, research, or cultural activities.
KEY FOREST ROAD NORTH/SOUTH TRANSPORTATION ROUTES
Mendocino National Forest
Yet to date, none of the Administration’s stated policies or guidelines – including the May 20 post by Acting Associate Chief Chris French – highlight “roads” as a key focus area or acknowledge that none of the on- the- ground Forest management objectives or goals happen unless Forest roads damaged or blown out during winter storms are repaired in a timely manner.
ACTING ASSOCIATE CHIEF CHRIS FRENCH, MAY 20, STATEMENT ON OPERATIONAL PLANNING
https://www.fs.usda.gov/inside-fs/leadership/update-interim-operational-planning
French notes the actions below aim to maintain essential services, address critical risks, and support the agency’s priorities. Key focus areas (sans ROADS) with dedicated working groups include:
- Employee and public safety
- Disaster recovery
- Active management (timber/vegetation/fuels)
- Recreation
- Energy, minerals and geology
- NEPA planning
- Grants and agreements
- Information technology
- Communication and legislative affairs
- Fire response (incident management capacity)
- Human resources
- Law enforcement and investigations
- Budget
- Chief Finance Office (payments, billings & reimbursable agreements)
- Procurement & property services/contracts, facilities & leasing
Over the last 4-5 years, the subject of not having the funds and resources to effect post-winter repairs of FS storm damaged roads is almost always part of any conversation that QWR has had with agency staff or partners.
Mendocino National Forest
QWR believes the Administration and Congress should make maintaining a quality Transportation System a top priority if they plan on increasing the pace and scale of forest management treatments and providing access to outdoor recreation.
CHIEF TOM SHULTZ POSTS MAY 6 UPDATE ON NEXT STEPS
https://www.fs.usda.gov/inside-fs/leadership/our-next-steps
PS- Thanks to the hard work by Mendocino NF crews and partners to recover forest lands and recreation facilities damaged by the 2018 Ranch Fire and 2020 August Complex Fire.
# # #
Don Amador has been in the trail advocacy and recreation management profession for 35 years. Don is President of Quiet Warrior Racing LLC. Don is Past President/CEO and current board member of the Post Wildfire OHV Recovery Alliance. Don is a Co-Founder and Core-Team member on FireScape Mendocino, a forest health collaborative that is part of the National Fire Learning Network. Don served as an AD Driver for the Forest Service North Zone Fire Cache during the 2022, 2023, and 2024 Fire Seasons. Don is a Northwest California native and writes from his home in Cottonwood, CA. Don may be reached by email at: damador at cwo.com
Yes, roads serve many important purposes, and like with many things, there CAN be too much of a good thing.
Areas without roads also serve many important functions, and unroaded areas better reflect the conditions (both terrestrial and aquatic) that fish & wildlife evolved with.
We don’t have the resources to maintain all the roads we’ve built.
The whole notion of “temporary” roads is a misnomer. They may be used temporarily, but they have long-term impacts on soil, water, weeds, etc.
Semantics: the whole notion of verifiable definitions of forest terms is a long lost art, due mostly to laziness of the users. A “temporary road” only exists under the 2400-6 Timber Sale Contact, that’s the only place within the National Forest system! However, slip-shod users and the uneducated have morphed a temporary road to stand for whatever suits their need. User-created roads are what most folks think of when it comes to a temporary road. Just like the Manual for Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD) identifies standards and usage for forest signs, the examples found nowadays resemble 6th grade art class – and absolutely awful! When standards and legal designations are mismanaged, the whole system fails!
As for roads, we need all of them. Back in the day, Region 6 (Oregon and Washington) had a system of roads and so called “fire roads” for quick access in fire initial attack. Of course, the excuse of no money, can’t maintain what we have, wildlife concerns, etc is just an excuse; may as well blame climate change …. or Trump, etc. Build a road and gate it; that’s the solution for most newer roads built for timber extraction – also a “taking” from public use!
With the new Chief’s initiative to address keeping roads for recreation and fire suppression, maybe we’ll open the forests back up for users!
Wildlife concerns are not just an “excuse” to any road-sensitive species – grizzly bears would be the obvious example where road management is mandatory. Then there’s big game.
If “taking” is supposed to have some particular meaning, I don’t get it.
Grizzly Bears? Grizzly bears; are you kidding me? Of all the excuses to close roads you sited an animal that resides in only a small portion of four States, and Alaska. I’m really torn with the road systems in the South and their impacts on our Grizzlies….🤣. Big game? Easily handled by travel management, and their seasonality of road use, to lessen aggravation during calving season. Good grief, of all the excuses….
As for “taking”; similar to the Constitution’s wording. These roads were built using taxpayers money, whether through Purchasers Credit, or “hard money” direct payments, or goods/services under Stewardship. I doubt any species is bound for extinction because of a road! Birds fly, animals move, fish swim, the Three-Forks Springtail can do neither but they were exterminated by wildfire many years ago.
Very well illustrated as a reach for any old excuse….. Sorry John, that dog won’t hunt…..
Yes fish. They don’t swim though a lot of road culverts, and sediment from roads is not an “excuse.”
Constitutional “taking” requires a legal right to begin with. No such thing just because taxes paid for it.
Google doesn’t recognize “Three-Forks Springtail,” nor any U. S. “extinct springtail” (other than fossil records).
https://recentlyextinctspecies.com/databases/entognatha-springtails-diplurans-and-proturans
You need to pull up the Apache-Sitgreaves Forest Plan, it’s one of the few places I know of where the FS actually prohibits foot travel to protect the Spring Snail. It’s microscopic, and has been gone for decades but the USFWS still lists the habitat! Makes lots of sense; Wallow fire incinerated that watershed, solving the problem….
Google failed me. The Three Forks springsnail was listed as endangered in 2012 after the Wallow Fire, and the fire was a factor in listing the species (along with invasive crayfish and climate change):
“A recent high-intensity fire that burned around the only remaining populations of the Three Forks springsnail has caused the habitat of the species to be currently threatened with destruction, modification, and curtailment due to soil erosion and sedimentation during storm events.”
A status report was prepared in 2022, and the recovery plan was just released this year. From the status report: “The current range of the Three Forks springsnail includes 26 springs and seeps along Boneyard Creek and its confluence with the North Fork and East Fork of the Black River in the White Mountains on the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forests (Figure 2). The current range can be broken up into three geographically distinct complexes: the Three Forks complex; the Boneyard Creek complex; and the Boneyard Bog complex. Each of these spring complexes occurs in shallow canyon drainages or open mountain meadows at 8,200 feet (ft) (2,500 meters [m]) in elevation. The entire range of the springsnail, encompassed within 3.7 miles (mi) (6 kilometers [km]), is along perennial waterways.”
Not exterminated.