Roads Analysis: Informing Decisions About Managing the National Forest Transportation System

As the Forest Service's Natural Resource Agenda was being forged, the transportation system and its relationship to the other elements of the Natural Resource Agenda: Watershed Health and Restoration, Sustainable Forest Management, and Recreation became so clear that Roads were made a part of the Agenda. As a part of "... providing all Americans with access to the National Forests." on January 28, 1998, the Forest Service proposed a rule in the Federal Register to suspend road construction in certain unroaded areas. A part of that proposed rule indicated that it was necessary to prepare a `New Science Based Road Analysis Process to assist National Forest Managers reevaluate the transportation system to assure that it is responsive to new focus on ecosystem restoration, the publics need for access to the National Forests and to assure that the transportation system can be maintained and operated with existing and expected funding. The Road Analysis Process was prepared by a team of senior scientists and managers to meet the requirements of the final rule.