Major Initiative Proposed to Protect National Forests

Back to Map Page October, 1999 A road-building ban would help water quality as well as reducing logging in National Forests. On October 13 President Clinton announced a proposed road-building ban that would protect up to 40 million acres from new road construction, including all roadless areas of 5,000 acres or larger. Most of these areas are in western states. Logging interests and by senators from several western states have attacked the plan. President Clinton says that the ban would have little effect on the nation's timber supply, however, since less than 5% of timber comes from roadless areas. Road building is a key issue in forest protection because roads are necessary for logging and development to proceed. Road building also causes a majority of stream and river pollution in mountainous states. In recent decades the United States has spent as much as $225 million annually on building roads into remote, roadless areas. The US Forest Service maintains a road system of nearly 400,000 miles of roads, eight times the extent of the US highway system. Most of these roads are built by the US Forest Service in order to allow logging trucks in to national forests, as well as to facilitate mining and oil and gas drilling. This move is one of President Clinton's most important environmental initiatives. The approximately 40 million acres that would be protected by this plan represent more than 20% of the 192 million acres in the National Forest system. President Clinton is hoping to push the ban forward administratively, bypassing the Republican-controlled Congress, by early in 2000. In December 1999 the proposal has not been acted upon. This will be an important issue to watch as it develops. To read more, see Environmental Science, A Global Concern, Cunningham and Saigo, 5th ed. Logging issues: pages 302-306 Mining -- environmental effects: pages 350-354 Environmental Science, Enger and Smith, 6th ed. Land use planning principles: page 246 For further information, see these related web sites: Seattle Times report Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics Forest Service: Statistics on National Forest roads system: http://www.fs.fed.us/news/roads/stats.htm Report from the Oregonian Detailed editorial from the Denver Post Back to Map Page feedback form | permissions | international | locate your campus rep | request a review copy digital solutions | publish with us | customer service | mhhe home Copyright ©2001 The McGraw-Hill Companies. Any use is subject to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. McGraw-Hill Higher Education is one of the many fine businesses of the The McGraw-Hill Companies.