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 Autumn Equinox 2005. Volume 10 # 3
Inside…
Check out our website at: www.wildlandscpr.org 
Victory in the Lost River Valley, byLahsha Johnston. Pages 3-5Policy Primer: Data Quality Act, byAmy Atwood. Pages 6-7Depaving the Way, by BethanieWalder. Pages 8-9Odes to Roads, by Scott Stouder.Pages 10-11Get with the Program: Restoration & Transportation Program Updates.Pages 12-13Biblio Notes: Roads in the BrazilianAmazon, by Adam Switalski.Pages 14-16Legislative Update: The HighwaySpending Bill. Page 17Regional Reports. Pages 18-19Citizen Spotlight: The Sky IslandAlliance, by Cathy Adams.Pages 20-21Around the Office, Membership info.Pages 22-23
Victory in the Lost River Valley
 By Lahsha JohnstonThe fragile apline meadows and grasslands of the Lost River Valley havebeen, for now, spared the intrusion of a motorized mega-route. Photo by Matt Leidecker.
 
 The Road-RIPorter, Autumn Equinox 2005
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© 2005 Wildlands CPR
Wildlands CPR 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.
P.O. Box 7516Missoula, MT 59807(406) 543-9551 www.wildlandscpr.org
Director 
Bethanie Walder 
Development Director 
Tom Petersen 
Restoration ProgramCoordinator 
Marnie Criley 
Science Coordinator 
Adam Switalski 
Transportation Policy Organizer 
Jason Kiely 
Program Assistant 
Cathy Adams 
Newsletter 
Dan Funsch & Marianne Zugel 
Interns & Volunteers 
Jess Bernard, Katherine Court, Sonya Germann,Laura Harris, Gordon Willson Naranjo 
Board of Directors 
Amy Atwood, Karen DiBari, Greg Fishbein,Jim Furnish, William Geer, Dave Havlick, Cara Nelson, Sonya Newenhouse, Matt Skroch 
 Advisory Committee 
Jasper Carlton, Dave Foreman,Keith Hammer, Timothy Hermach,Marion Hourdequin, Kraig Klungness, Lorin Lind- ner, Andy Mahler, Robert McConnell, Stephanie Mills, Reed Noss, Michael Soulé, Steve Trombulak,Louisa Willcox, Bill Willers, Howie Wolke 
 Lost River panorama. Photo by Matt Leidecker 
 T
he times they are a changing (well, sort of), at the Federal Highways Department(FHWA). On August 10, 2005, the President signed the long-overdue, oft-extendedsix year federal highway spending bill. This bill includes one significant beneficialchange from previous highways bills, continuing a trend toward more ecologically soundhighway planning that began in 1992. But it is also, as always, loaded with ecologicallydamaging pork projects.While we review key provisions of the bill on page 17, some overall trends are worthnoting here. For the first time, the new bill provides direct funding for wildlife cross-ing structures across highways. Such structures can increase habitat connectivity andreduce collisions – saving both human and animal lives. The bill also provides funding toimprove fish passage under roads.These provisions are historic, though in truth, they are long overdue. Other coun-tries, including our immediate neighbor to the north, have far outspent and out-re-searched the United States in devising more effective mitigation structures to reduce theimpacts of roads on wildlife. On the bright side, numerous projects are now underwayin the U.S., including the reconstruction of a road right here in Montana that will includemore than 40 wildlife crossing structures over a 60-mile stretch of highway.We will work with other conservationists to assess the true amount of funding avail-able for wildlife and aquatic mitigation, and to ensure that such money is used to developecologically sound structures that will help reduce the impacts of highways on wildlife.But it is important to remember that mitigation is not the same as prevention or restora-tion. Wildlands CPR’s first priority will always be to prevent new road construction inecologically sensitive places, since mitigation can only reduce, but not eliminate, habitatfragmentation and other ecological impacts of highways.While the name is pretty: “the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient TransportationEquity Act – A Legacy for Users” (SAFETEA-LU), the bill maintains the status quo onhighway spending and funds $24 billion worth of pork projects, while tossing a bone toconservation interests to address the impacts of some of these projects. Wildlands CPRworked with a small group of activists from Washington DC and the west to promote someof the good provisions, while also fighting the bad provisions in the bill. Unfortunately,we were not able to stop all of the funding for bad earmarks, including three ecologicallydevastating, and extraordinarily expensive projects proposed in Alaska. Our efforts nowwill turn to fighting the implementation of such projects..As we were going to press, the New York Times editorialized about one way we couldboth reduce the highway spending pork and help the victims of Hurricane Katrina. Theyrecommended that the states give back some of the earmarked pork project money al-located in SAFETEA-LU. We support the idea, and think it’s an ideal way for other statesto lend a financial hand to the Gulf Coast residents as they deal with the fallout of thehurricane, and for people throughout the country to show that we really can set priori-ties about what’s important. We hope that some good can come from this tragic andtruly catastrophic event by helping Americans refocus our efforts on addressing poverty,injustice and environmental degradation right here in our own backyard. Our thoughtsand best wishes go to everyone affected by this storm.
 
 The Road-RIPorter, Autumn Equinox 2005
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Victory in the Lost River Valley
 By Lahsha Johnston
— continued on next page — 
 T
he Lost River Valley is iconic of the West’sbroad, open valleys flanked by steep,dramatic mountain ranges. High elevationpeaks dotted with snow fields and cirques holdingsmall lakes sweep down to sage and grass coveredhills. Below these majestic peaks, meandering riverchannels intertwine with meadows in this centralIdaho setting. And this summer, in a victory forrural values and quiet recreation, the Lost Riverand Pahsimeroi Valleys were spared from becominghome to the nation’s largest off-road vehicle routeand the first such route to propose state manage-ment of federal lands.
 Background 
In 2002 the Idaho Department of Parks andRecreation (IDPR) proposed the Lost River Trail, a460-mile off-road vehicle route to be built on publiclands managed by the Salmon-Challis National For-est and Bureau of Land Management (BLM). In addi-tion, the IDPR requested sole management authorityover a two-mile wide corridor the route’s entirelength. The proposed route ran from the city ofArco north to Challis and beyond, and on both sidesof the Lost River Range, with two portions crossingthrough the heart of these mountains.Opponents succeeded in defeating this ill-con-ceived mega-route by working together. Cuttingthrough misinformation and rhetoric, The Wilder-ness Society and its Idaho allies revealed the uglyfacts: (1) the ecological and social impacts createdby increased off-road vehicle traffic would changethe way of life for area ranchers and residents; (2)the unfunded maintenance and enforcement coststo municipalities and counties, as well as federalagencies, greatly outweighed the cheery forecast ofthe benefits that a mega-route would bring to strug-gling rural economies.
Considering the Impacts
Our concerns over the off-road vehicle routeincluded impacts to the environment, wildlife,Wilderness Study Areas, noise, erosion, habitat frag-mentation, weeds, fire, water, route proliferation,enforcement, maintenance, monitoring, rehabilita-tion, and general route management including statecontrol. The effects of a route this large, however,go far beyond the immediate corridor and actualroute — cumulative impacts to resources and otherforms of recreation enjoyed on adjacent publiclands would be significant and irreversible. Wealso knew there would likely be increased demandsplaced on federal agencies and local government services, conflictswith private property owners and recreation, and impacts to the localeconomy. Many people shared our concerns, but did not understandthe federal planning process and agency regulations that govern off-road vehicle use.Federal law requires preparing an in-depth analysis of the environ-mental, social, and economic consequences of any major federal actionin an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). Such an analysis must in-clude consideration of alternatives to the proposal. Since the IDPR is astate agency they were not required to undertake this type of extensiveanalysis, however, because their proposal required the BLM and ForestService to sanction the route across federal land, we argued that an EISshould be prepared. When the federal agencies would not commit toan EIS, we made it very clear that we were prepared to seek immediatelegal recourse to force them to do so.
 An Agency’s (Blind) Ambition
The IDPR was convinced that if given the opportunity, they couldmanage off-road vehicle use better than the federal agencies. Theopinions of federal agency staff were mixed. Some thought that a des-ignated route would help resolve conflicts over increasing motorizedrecreation, or that money from the IDPR would provide resources tomake up for decreasing federal budgets. And, since IDPR was propos-ing the route, state officials would bear the brunt of criticism andpublic scrutiny. Finally, no one had developed any alternatives to thelarge route concept. It was the only game in town.In addition to being the only alternative proposed, the IDPR calledit a demonstration project to be used to monitor, evaluate, and test po-tential management strategies for motorized recreation in the state ofIdaho. The IDPR identified the proposed “Lost River Trail” as the firstof several such demonstration projects around the state. Then last
 Rural values like peace, quiet, and (the lack of) traffic were all threatened by the proposed route. Photo by Matt Leidecker.
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