Andrea Manes
Membership/Web Marketing Associate
Josh Hurd
Utah State ORV Coordinator
Laurel Hagen
Journal Editor
Dan Funsch
Interns & Volunteers
Carla Abrams, Mike Fiebig, Marlee Ostheimer,Ginny Porter
Board of Directors
Amy Atwood, Greg Fishbein, Jim Furnish,illiam Geer, Dave Havlick, Chris Kassar,Rebecca Lloyd, Cara Nelson
Is the Tide Finally Turning?
2007
has been a busy and exciting time for restoration advocates throughoutthe country, with projects and proposals regularly in the news. Wild-lands CPR worked hard, for example, to support increased funding forrestoration in the state of Montana. The final result: 34 million in new funding and a newstate restoration office, housed at the Department of Natural Resources and Conserva-tion. The new state restoration coordinator will distribute $5.7 million for watershedrestoration around the state — we expect this will include road removal.While this was a big step for Montana, restoration projects around the country havebeen receiving millions, even billions, for at least the last decade. Think Everglades, LakeTahoe, Chesapeake Bay…. Those billions are putting a lot of people to work, and they’rerestoring water quality in some very important regions. So what’s so exciting about newrestoration funding this summer? There’s a big focus on roads.In August, the Lake Tahoe project received another 45 million for restoration, someof which will go to stabilize or decommission roads. We also expect funds will pay formonitoring and research on the effectiveness of these road restoration efforts. The stagewas set for this appropriation with the passage of the Lake Tahoe Restoration Act in 2000.(Unfortunately the bulk of the funding came from selling public lands around Las Vegasfor development, and that’s like robbing Peter to pay Paul.)he 30-year effort to restore the Everglades has an estimated price tag of over 10billion. An appropriations bill for some of the upcoming projects includes 375 millionfor hydrologic restoration of the Picayune Strand near Big Cypress National Preserve. Asignificant chunk of this would remove roads from a 1960s scam residential development.The Nature Conservancy now owns the failed development and the roads, which areacting like dikes, must be removed to restore hydrologic flow. This may be the largest ap-propriation for road removal ever proposed. The total Picayune Strand area is 85 squaremiles, and the proposal also includes several other projects.And then there’s the story on page 14 of this issue of
The Riporter
— a proposed $65million appropriation for road management to restore fish passage on national forestlands. This funding is proposed for the Forest Service, and it emphasizes watershed res-toration through road decommissioning, though funds can also be used to upgrade cul-verts or conduct critical maintenance for fisheries. While this seems like a lot of money,Wildlands CPR previously estimated that it would cost approximately 93 million per yearfor 20 years to meet the Forest Service projection to decommission up to 186,000 miles ofroads on national forest lands. This would be a great start toward that annual 93 million,but unfortunately, it is “one-time” money, so we still need to find ongoing funding for thiswork.onetheless, it seems clear that the tide is turning. Proposals in the current con-gress call for nearly half a billion dollars for watershed restoration through road removal.Decision-makers are finally beginning to understand that not all roads are good, and thatremoving some will restore watershed function, wildland connectivity, and also commu-nity vitality, as this restoration work brings needed jobs. Let’s hope the tide stays in forincreased watershed restoration funding, with an emphasis, of course, on road issues.
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