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 Autumn Equinox 2008. Volume 13 No. 3
Check out our website at: www.wildlandscpr.org 
Inside…
A Look Down the Trail, by Bethanie Walder.Pages 2-3From New Mexico to the Caribbean, byBryan Bird. Pages 4-6Regional Reports & Updates. Page 7DePaving the Way: by Bethanie Walder.Pages 8-9Citizen Spotlight: Wayne Jenkins, byCathrine L. Walters. Pages 10-11Get with the Program: Restoration and Transportation Program Updates.Pages 12-13Policy Primer. Pages 14-15Biblio Notes: Paving Paradise, by ShannonDonahue. Pages 16-18New Resources. Page 19Odes to Roads, by Greg Peters. Pages20-21Around the Office, Membership Info. Pages22-23
 From New Mexico to the Caribbean:
 A story of road decommissioning, marine biology and thefuture of watershed restoration.
 By Bryan Bird 
 Heavy equipment is put to work restoring roads in the Santa Fe National Forest, part of theCollaborative Forest Restoration Program (CFRP). Photo by John Dixon, US Forest Service.
— story begins on page 4 — 
 
 The Road-RIPorter, Autumn Equinox 2008
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© 2008 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 
Legal Liaison/Agency Training Coordinator 
Sarah Peters 
Communications Coordinator 
Franklin Seal 
Montana State ORV Coordinator 
Adam Rissien 
Utah State ORV Coordinator 
Laurel Hagen 
Program Associates 
Cathrine L. Walters 
Restoration Research Associate 
Josh Hurd 
Journal Editor 
Dan Funsch 
Interns & Volunteers 
Geoff Fast, Aaron Kindle, Greg Peters,Cassidy Randall 
Board of Directors 
Amy Atwood, Greg Fishbein, Jim Furnish,William Geer, Chris Kassar, Rebecca Lloyd,Cara Nelson, Brett Paben 
This year, fire lookouts watched as the agency’s fire-fighting budget went up in smoke. Photo by Dan Funsch.
 The Dangers of Playing with Fire
The Bush Administration played with fire last year when it cut the Forest Service’s2008 fire-fighting budget from $1.6 billion to $1.2 billion. In early August, with nearly 2hot, dry months still remaining in the agency’s fiscal year, the Forest Service had alreadyoverdrawn its fire account.To deal with the problem, Forest Service Chief Gail Kimball announced that theagency would transfer $400 million from other programs to cover the shortfall. Theconsequences of this transfer are significant, and the impacts will be felt in many NationalForest System and maintenance programs.In the last ten years, fire suppression has gone from about 15% of the Forest Service’sbudget to about 50%. The $1.2 billion they had budgeted for FY ’08 is already nearlyhalf of the annual budget – making it extremely difficult for the Forest Service to manageanything but fire. Early this year, Congress provided supplemental fire funding but clearlyit wasn’t enough.Five primary factors put the agency in this position:• Increased fire severity and frequency due to climate change (drought, increasedinsect infestations, etc.);• Fuels build-up from past fire-suppression;• Rapid and extensive development in the wildland urban interface – dramaticallyincreasing the amount of private property at risk from wildfire;• Inability of Congress or the Administration to create a separate, viable and reason-able funding source for wildland fire fighting, and;• Contracting out firefighting responsibilities adding overhead costs previously notabsorbed by the agency.
 
 The Road-RIPorter, Autumn Equinox 2008
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 Area of high burn intensity in the 2007 Wyman Gulch fire(Montana). Photo by Dan Funsch.
Fire has become more expensive to controlbecause of these factors, and as a result the For-est Service has lost some of their capacity to usefire as a management tool. But fire is still a criti-cal component of many functioning ecosystems,whether we’ve built houses in them or not, andthe agency needs to find a way to keep this toolin its toolbox.Fire isn’t the only management problem theagency is facing, but with constant budget short-falls, and increasing firefighting costs, it is eatingup the funding needed for other resource issues.Roads for example, cause significant short andlong-term impacts to forest ecosystems. Morethan half a million roads cut through nationalforests, bleeding sediments into drinking watersupplies, fragmenting wildlife and aquatic habi-tat, spreading invasive pests and pathogens, anddamaging fisheries. Increasingly severe andfrequent pacific storms cause tens of millions ofdollars worth of damage nearly every year, muchof that from massive road failures.In 2007, Wildlands CPR and the WashingtonWatershed Restoration Initiative worked withCongress, the Forest Service and others to pro-mote a new funding mechanism for dealing withold, failing, expensive and ecologically-damagingforest roads. This resulted in the 2007 OmnibusAppropriations bill including $39.4 million for thenew Legacy Roads and Trails Remediation Initia-tive (LRRI). The LRRI provided funding to everyregion of the Forest Service to fix ailing forestroads by upgrading culverts (to restore fish pas-sage) or performing critical maintenance. It alsoprovided long overdue and much needed fundingfor restoring watersheds by removing unneededforest roads. But $40 million is just a drop in thebucket – the Forest Service has a road mainte-nance backlog of approximately $10 billion.Now even this limited funding is in jeopardy. The LRRI funds are justone of numerous accounts being raided to cover the fire-fighting short-fall. Some regions estimate that the initial $400 million transfer will takeapproximately half of the LRRI funds allocated to their region. But manyLRRI projects had matching funds, so the agency risks losing hundredsof thousands, if not millions of dollars in matching funds from public andprivate partners.The Forest Service cannot manage their lands effectively when forcedto operate in this fashion. They cannot commit to restoration, mitigationor even planning projects when they don’t know if funding will be availablefor the duration of the year. They cannot commit to contractors, jeopar-dizing local jobs. They cannot commit to partners who bring matchingfunds to the table to do important work. Fire is not the only ecologicalor economic challenge the Forest Service is facing. If the agency doesn’tfix its crumbling road system, starting with the reclamation of unneededroads, we will end up with severely damaged fisheries, degraded drinkingwater, and the loss of access to public lands from road failures.In previous years, Congress has paid the Forest Service back for mon-ey it had to borrow to fight fires but time is running out on this congressand it looks bleak for another supplemental appropriation to reimbursethe Forest Service for this year’s fire transfers. Earlier this year legisla-tion was introduced in the House to create separate fire-fighting accounts,so the agency could have a reliable budget. The Federal Land Assistance,Management and Enhancement Act (FLAME Act) (H.R. 5541), though farfrom perfect, could ease the burden if it passed. So would zoning regula-tions to prevent more exurban growth; prescribed fire to reduce fuel load-ing; investment in community “fire-proofing” in the wildland urban inter-face; thinning in the interface; and numerous other approaches. Insteadnearly all of the money is being poured into suppression.The Forest Service has a lot more “fires” to put out than those thatactually involve heat and flame. Unstable, under-maintained roads are likerotting foundations waiting to collapse when the next big storm comesthrough. Thousands of miles already have, and thousands more will. Andthe damage can be more costly than that caused by fires. If we can providemore than $1 billion/year for fire-fighting, then it seems we could also pro-vide at least $500 million/year for the Legacy Roads Initiative to begin eras-ing the $10 billion road maintenance/management backlog. But withouta rational mechanism to fund comprehensive fire management (includingprescribed fire), and full funding for other resource management needs,the Forest Service might as well just change its name to the Fire Service.
 Restoring a road in Colorado’s Arapaho-Roosevelt National Forest. Photo by Wendy Magwire, US Forest Service.
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