Information for you all (USFS Input)

[Founder]

This letter came to me yesterday. I'm trying to make it a point to pass press releases and letters of importance on to you all.

------------------------------------------------------

U.S. Forest Service Needs Hunter/Angler Input on Management of Roadless Areas in Idaho

Dear Brian Latturner,

New roads into the roadless backcountry in Idaho's 12 national forests could result in serious losses of both critical fish and wildlife habitat and your opportunities for high quality hunting and fishing.

It is important that you write a personal letter to the U.S. Forest Service expressing your views on building new roads into roadless areas. The future of some of Idaho's best hunting and fishing is at stake.

What's At Stake:

Idaho currently has 9.3 million acres of roadless backcountry (Inventoried Roadless Areas, or IRAs) in 12 national forests. Former Governor Risch recently submitted a petition to the U.S. Forest Service recommending keeping IRAs unroaded to protect fish and wildlife habitat and high-quality hunting and fishing, among other values, on about 8.8 millions acres of the 9.322 millions acres of IRAs. Risch recommended the remaining 525,000 acres be reduced to ?general management? for full development options. In response to Risch?s petition, the Forest Service is beginning a scoping process for federal rulemaking to determine just how the 9.3 million acres of IRAs in Idaho will be managed.

About 400,000 of those 525,000 acres scheduled for release to ?general forest management? are in the Caribou-Targhee National Forest in southeastern Idaho. The remaining 125,000 acres are located throughout the state. The Caribou-Targhee National Forest is well known for large bull elk and 30-inch mule deer bucks, and is a popular destination for Salt Lake City hunters. This forest has excellent trout fishing in streams and lakes. The loss of roadless management and subsequent development of this area are likely to have adverse impacts on big game and fish habitat. The additional 8.8 million acres of Idaho backcountry is also at risk during this process because all conservation measures have the potential to be weakened through the federal rulemaking process.

TAKE ACTION---CLICK HERE---> http://trcp.ga0.org/campaign/IDRoadless050807/wbes5udroxxdm77?

------------------------------------------------------

Brian Latturner
MonsterMuleys.com

 

[dkoch]

It's important that we look at the big picture before we get on the no new roads bandwagon. For one thing, this call to action is from the TRCP (Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Fund). It is unclear whether this group has a preservationist mission (like Earth First) or a wise use mission.

We have vast areas within the National Forest System that are in dire need of management in order to improve the health and vigor of the forest. Fires continue to ravage valuable forests and wildlife habitat. Many groups, including the Forest Service, argue that this is a natural process. However, there is much we can do in treating the forest through timber sales and timber stand improvement work that will move the forest toward a more fire resistant, historic forest composition and density.

The problem with designated Roadless Areas is that much of this acreage is not "roadless". Roads that existed for decades and which were used for managing the forest are being put to bed at an accelerated rate. The explanation from the Forest Service is that they no longer have money to maintain these roads. This is really smoke and mirrors. If they got back to basics, they would see that timber sale receipts would more than offset sale preparation costs, including road maintenance. And our forests and wildlife habitat would benefit from treatment.

Do I personally want to see all of our wilderness roaded? Negative. In fact, I am one of those hunters who detest 4-wheelers, motorcycles, and any other mechanized method of accessing backcountry for the purpose of hunting. I'm the kind of person who regularly packs boned out animals 3 to 10 miles out of backcountry, in country where you may have to ascend or descend several thousand vertical feet.

The bottom line here is that roads should not be viewed as the hunter's enemy. The enemy is the camp that believes that non management is good management.

 

[NWElkHunter]

Nice post Dkoch and welcome to MM, my father worked for the USFS heading a district fires and fuels position in Oregon. I learned a lot about healthy forests and what fire suppression and doing "nothing" with a forest can do to the wildlife. At least out in the NW removing trees always seems to help out the deer and elk in my opinion...

 

[Salmonfg]

Regarding the question about the mission of the TRCP; as stated on the web site... "Our Mission: The Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership is a coalition of leading hunting, fishing and conservation organizations, labor unions and individual grassroots partners working together to preserve the traditions of hunting and fishing by a.) expanding access to places to hunt and fish, b.) conserving fish and wildlife and the habitats necessary to sustain them, and c.) increasing funding for conservation and management.

and following is a list of oprganizations on the board of directors and policy council:

American Fly Fishing Trade Association
American Sportfishing Association
Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies
BASS/ESPN Outdoors
Beretta USA
Berkley Conservation Institute
Big Sky Carvers
Boone and Crockett Club
Building and Construction Trades Department of the AFL-CIO
Coastal Conservation Association
Ducks Unlimited
Federation of Fly Fishers
The Forestland Group
Izaak Walton League of America
Max McGraw Wildlife Foundation
New York State Conservation Council
North American Grouse Partnership
Orvis
Pheasants Forever
Quail Unlimited
Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association
Sturm, Ruger and Co, Inc.
Systemation
Trout Unlimited
Trust for Public Land
United Association of Plumbers and Pipefitters
Whitetails Unlimited
Wildlife Management Institute
The Wildlife Society

Therefore, it is quite clear that TRCP has all of our interests as hunters and conservationists as their main focus. As a professional wildlife biologist, I agree forest management is a very important tool for managing habitat for all wildlife species. However, forest management does not require open roads and in many cases, open road density is a signifcant hindrance to meeting management goals for big game species. The scientific evidence regarding the negative effects of open roads on habitat effectiveness, particularly for elk, is overwhelming. A significant consideration in forest management in this day and age is that land management agencies (e.g., US Forest Service and BLM) have become nearly gridlocked by regulation, administration, and litigation issues. Therefore, the scale at which they can manage habitat is minimal relative to the need. So managing other aspects of habitat effectiveness, such as open road density, tend to be more attractive tools.

Like many issues, fire history and fire impacts are very complex issues. Simply stating fire is good or bad cannot be correct. There is no question that fire played a significant role in the development of pre-European landscapes. However, landscape-level changes, including intensive fire suppression, have significantly altered the way fire behaves and how habitats recover from fire under current conditions. In some cases, wildfire is extremely beneficial; in others, extremely harmful.

Tom Keegan
IDFG Salmon Region Wildlife Manager

 

[fullcry]

LAST EDITED ON Jul-17-07 AT 10:29PM (MST)[p]Say what you want, But "Roadless areas" generally mean unless you got horses,nobody uses them...Our Forests are a renewable Resourse
that need to be managed and and utilized...