By Michael Howell
The Bitterroot National Forest is conducting a forest wide analysis of its road infrastructure. The aim, according to Regional Transportation Group Leader Fred Bower, is to meet the requirements of a Forest Service Road Rule adopted in 2001 which mandated that each forest look at its road infrastructure and identify those roads that are most crucial for meeting the goals of its Forest Plan and which are the greatest liabilities in terms of environmental risks.
A subsequent Travel Management Rule adopted in 2005 also emphasized the need to do an analysis and review road use designations as well as examining over-snow use. Bower said that this road report would address the first part of that rule. Bower emphasized that it was simply a report assessing the road infrastructure “from 50,000 feet” and identifying what we need to keep and what we can’t afford to keep.
The kinds of things being looked at in terms of beneficial access values include recreational access, access to private property, access to administrative sites, access for fire protection, timber management projects and other special uses.
Mike Jeffords complained that the analysis is already skewed against the common guy and recreationists in general. He called it a backwards process since the BNF Travel Plan is just being done.
Bower agreed that the process is a bit backwards and the forest wide road analysis should have been done before the Travel Management Plan, but wasn’t.
Bitterroot National Forest engineer Amber Richardson said that because the Travel Management Plan was going on that they were trying to keep this road analysis project “low key” so people don’t get confused. Bower and other officials agreed, saying they did not expect big things to come out of the analysis and they were trying not to make it bigger than it is.
An interactive mapping tool reflecting the initial results of the analysis is available on the forest website at www.fs.usda.gov/bitterroot. This is the primary tool for the public to view the analysis and provide input.
Public comments are due by August 31, 2015.
Any future road proposals will involve close work with local communities and the public. When actual treatments are considered including road construction, reconstruction, decommissioning, or maintenance, they will be subject to more detailed, site specific analysis and the public will have the opportunity to provide input and comments under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).