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 From Bicycles to Board Feet:
A History ofPublic Land Roads
Inside…
Check out our website at: www.wildlandscpr.org 
— See article on page 3 — 
Down the Road…. Page 2Bicycles to Board Feet, by Dave Havlick. Page 3-5Depaving the Way: Tears for Isis,by Bethanie Walder. Page 6-7Policy Primer: Roads Analysis Process, by MarnieCriley and Amy Chadwick. Page 8-9, 20Odes to Roads: Walking, 140 Years afterThoreau, by Dan Flores. Page 10-11Wildlands CPR Annual Report. Page 12-13Get With the Program: ORV and Roads Programsupdates. Page 14-15.Biblio Notes: Shake, Rattle & Roll, UnderstandingSeismic Testing, by Erich Zimmermann.Page 16-17Regional Reports & Updates. Page 18-19New Resources. Page 19Activist Spotlight: Gary Macfarlane, Page 21Around the Office. Page 22Resources & Membership. Page 22-23
 The Quarterly Newsletter of Wildlands Center for Preventing RoadsSpring Equinox 2002. Volume 7 # 1
 By Dave Havlick 
Above photo by Dave Havlick.
 
 The Road-RIPorter, Spring Equinox 2002
2
 © 2002 Wildlands CPR
Wildlands Center for Preventing Roads works to protect and restore wildland ecosystems by preventing and removing roads and limiting motorized recreation. We are a national clearinghouse and network, providing citizens with tools and strategies to fight road construction, deter motorized recreation, and promote road removal and revegetation.
Main OfficeP.O. Box 7516Missoula, MT 59807(406) 543-9551WildlandsCPR@wildlandscpr.orgwww.wildlandscpr.orgColorado Office — Jacob Smith2260 Baseline Rd., Suite 205Boulder, CO 80302(303) 247-0998prebles@indra.net
Director 
Bethanie Walder 
Development Director 
Tom Petersen 
ORV Policy Coordinators 
Jacob Smith, Tom Platt 
Roads Policy Coordinator 
Marnie Criley 
NTWC Grassroots Coordinator 
Lisa Philipps 
Program Associate 
Jennifer Barry 
Newsletter 
Dan Funsch & Jim Coefield 
Interns & Volunteers 
Carla Abrams, Joanne Bernard, Derek Goldman,Benjamin Hart, Maureen Hartmann, Colleen Lux,Jennifer Sutton, Erich Zimmermann 
Board of Directors 
Katie Alvord, Karen Wood DiBari, Dave Havlick,Greg Munther, Cara Nelson, Mary O'Brien, Dan Stotter, Ted Zukoski 
Advisory Committee 
Jasper Carlton, Dave Foreman,Keith Hammer, Timothy Hermach,Marion Hourdequin, Kraig Klungness, Lorin Lindner, Andy Mahler, Robert McConnell,Stephanie Mills, Reed Noss,Michael Soulé, Steve Trombulak, Louisa Willcox,Bill Willers, Howie Wolke 
In February, conservationists, loggers and the Forest Service were forced intomediation over proposed “restoration” logging in the Bitterroot National Forest. Shortlythereafter, a group of 70 conservationists, forest practitioners and community forestryadvocates gathered outside of Spokane, Washington to discuss forest restoration. Fiveyears from now, it is quite possible that we will view this second restoration summit(the first was a year ago) as a watershed event in conservation activism — but that alldepends on how well we are able to develop and maintain these new relationships.While we are working to develop these relationships, we are also promoting therestoration principles developed after the first restoration summit. These principlesguide our understanding of what is appropriate restoration on national forests, espe-cially as it pertains to logging. In addition, we hope these principles demonstrate thatroad removal is a viable and important component of wildland restoration. For moreinformation about the principles, please contact Marnie in our office.Starting with this issue of the
 Road-RIPorter 
, we intend to provide you with moreinformation about what we’re actually doing out there on the ground. For the last sevenyears, Wildlands CPR has made the
 Road-RIPorter 
a showcase of other activists and theirwork around the country; we’ve presented tools to fight off-road vehicles and roads,we’ve shared your successes and challenges, and we’ve offered the philosophicalunderpinnings of wildland restoration through road removal. Don’t worry, we’re notgoing to drop any of that stuff. Instead, we’re going to add more tools — like the policyprimer — and we will keep you posted about our proactive work. With every issue, wewill include columns about our roads and ORV work — written by the people who areactually doing that work. We hope this keeps you informed about opportunities we seefor fighting ORVs, promoting road removal, and the challenges we face.On that note, we’ll open this newsletter by listing Wildlands CPR’s six core prin-ciples. Hopefully this will give you a better sense of the way we frame and prioritize ourwork. As always, if you have comments or thoughts, please get in touch with us.Wildlands CPR’s strategies integrate conservation biology, activism and law to:1.
Define and implement cutting edge public policy strategies
to prevent, closeand revegetate roads and limit motorized recreation;2.
Link and coordinate networks of activists
and activist groups — helping formand organize effective coalitions;3.
Train citizens
to prevent, close, and revegetate wildland roads and limit motor-ized recreation, using sound biological and legal information;4.
Be a national clearinghouse
, providing citizens with the tools, research andactivist strategies needed to prevent, close or remove environmentally damaging roadsand limit motorized recreation in wildland ecosystems;5.
Inform the public
about the environmental damage caused by roads and motor-ized recreation and how to influence public land management decisions; and6.
Promote scientific research
on road ecology, road removal and off-road vehicles.
Photo by Edgar vander Grift.
 Wildlands Wildlands Wildlands Wildlands Wildlands CCCCCenter for PPPPPreventing  R R R R Roads
 
 The Road-RIPorter, Spring Equinox 2002
3
 From Bicycles to Board Feet:
 
 A History of Public Land Roads
 By Dave Havlick 
The Forest Service took to roads a bit more slowly. Recreationaltourism was tangential, at best, to the agency’s mission of securingfavorable water flow and providing a continuous supply of timber to agrowing nation.
i
Staffed primarily by trained foresters, the ForestService dedicated itself early on to a management philosophy of sustainably using the natural resources of the country’s forests. Ahandful of roads already existed on national forest lands at the timeof their designations — and the agency built or improved more roadseach year — but in its early days the Forest Service generally lackedthe incentive to build a great number of smooth, easily traveledroads.
ii
In the agency’s view, roads served utilitarian purposes andlittle more. It would build roads on a limited basis, as forestersneeded them to access timber or to help manage sprawling adminis-trative units.By the early 1920s, however, motorized travelers had so over-whelmed roadsides and private lands that car camping tourists werespilling onto the national forests.
iii
In 1912, one dozen stalwartmotorists managed to drive across the country; by 1921, transconti-nental motor trips numbered 20,000.
iv
By 1922, the New York Timesestimated that of the 10.8 million cars registered in the United States,five million would be used for camping.
v
The Forest Service soonrealized that recreational demand of its lands required some re-sponse.In 1920, Forest Service Chief Henry S. Graves published an articlein American Forestry entitled, “A Crisis in National Recreation.”
vi
Written at the close of his tenure with the Forest Service, Graves’article partially reflected his agency’s growing concern over thenewly-formed National Park Service. The crisis he identified, though,was the exodus of urban automobile tourists pouring into nationalforests and parks. To Graves, the subsequent commercialization of national park lands — and by extension, the blurring of lines betweenparks and national forest lands — presented an alarming trend. InGraves’ view, national forests were the proper storehouse for thecountry’s natural resources and recreation was becoming just that: avaluable resource. Five million car-camping tourists representedmoney and power too great to ignore. National parks, on the otherhand, ought to be kept apart from commercial exploitation.
vii
In otherwords, national forests should be used, whether for recreation ortimber extraction, and national parks should be preserved.Regardless of Graves’ concern as a “friend of the National Park System,” both agencies would find cause for further roadbuilding ontheir lands. The Forest Service could capitalize on the recreationresource, while the Park Service wanted to boost its constituency andprovide roads for the enjoyment of visitors.Graves’ article is noteworthy for more than its whispers of agency rivalry. It represents one of the first acknowledgments thatthe Forest Service would concern itself with recreation. And signifi-cantly, according to Graves, recreation was intimately linked withroads: “...recreation has an important place in the demand for a largeprogram of road improvement and extension.”
viii
Later in the sameAmerican Forestry article, Graves wrote, “Roadbuilding is an impor-tant feature of the development of our public forests and parks forrecreation.”
ix
 Excerpted from
No Place Distant: Roads andMotorized Recreation on America’s Public Lands
 ,by David G. Havlick. Copyright 2002 by David G. Havlick. Reprinted by permission of Island Press,Washington, D.C. and Covelo, California. All rightsreserved. Editor’s Note: This excerpt is from Chapter Two inthe book. Chapter One reviews the development of roads in the National Park System.
— continued on next page — 
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