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Roadless Rule Court Decision Organization calls on Bush Administration to now implement the Rule: Arlington, VA – A decision last week by an appeals court panel affirming the rule designed to protect millions of acres of roadless areas in the national forests and grasslands will have a profound impact on the nation’s fish and wildlife resources, according to Trout Unlimited. The decision, handed down by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, said that repealing the Roadless Area Conservation would open federal forests to logging, mining and other activities, harming some of the nation’s best remaining fish and wildlife habitat. The decision overturned an Idaho judge’s ruling in favor of an Idaho timber company’s effort to block the rule from going into affect. “The courts have determined that this rule is fair and legal. It’s time for the Bush Administration to help move the Forest Service beyond the controversy and analysis paralysis that plagues efforts to build roads into roadless areas, and implement the rule,” said Chris Wood, Vice President of Conservation Programs for Trout Unlimited. Wood said implementation of the rule is critical for fish and wildlife habitat, especially trout and salmon rivers that can be affected by sedimentation caused by poorly built and/or maintained roads. He noted that in the seven state Interior Columbia River Basin, 60% of the best remaining trout and salmon habitat is within roadless or low road density areas and 85-percent of the healthiest populations of all western cutthroat trout species occur in wilderness and roadless areas. “One simply cannot overstate the importance of roadless areas to trout and salmon,” said Steve Moyer, Vice President of Government Affairs and Volunteer Services for Trout Unlimited. Studies have shown that 62 percent of the healthiest populations of Colorado River cutthroat trout are found within roadless and other undeveloped areas, 76 percent of the strong populations of bull trout are found within roadless and other undeveloped areas, and 75 percent of greenback cutthroat trout strong populations are found within roadless and other undeveloped areas. The roadless rule, approved in January 2001, after a two year public process that included more than 600 public meetings and 1.6 million comments, applies to 58 million acres of inventoried existing roadless areas in the nation’s 192 million-acre national forest and grasslands system. The rule would ban new road construction in these areas, while continuing to allow access into the areas for hunters, bikers, birders, horseback riders, anglers and other users of our public lands. The policy also makes science-based exceptions for forest health, restoration and other national needs. Immediately after the rule was announced, some western United States timber interests and western states attacked it. Boise Cascade Corporation, a large timber conglomerate, the governor of Idaho and other western state officials filed suit in federal court in Boise, challenging the rule on the grounds that it violated the National Environmental Policy Act and would negatively affect local economies. Wood said one of the biggest threats faced by fish and wildlife in the national forests and grasslands are poorly designed and poorly maintained roads. He said the Forest Service currently maintains a 386,000-mile road system, but only receives less than 20 percent of the funding needed to maintain that system to the safety and environmental standards to which these roads were built. According to the Forest Service, “at present, only 13 percent of these roads are in good condition, and 50 percent are in poor condition or pose immediate threats to public safety or environmental degradation.” The Agency currently has an $8.4 billion maintenance and reconstruction backlog on its existing road system. “It makes absolutely
no sense to build more roads when the federal government isn’t taking
care of the roads they already have – roads that choke streams and
threaten trout and salmons habitat,” Moyer added. Making the Maggie Majestic The Maggie Creek drainage in northeastern Nevada is a rugged desert stream with flashy, perennial tributaries, numerous road culverts that fragment fish habitat, and a history of heavy cattle grazing that has degraded main stem and tributary habitats. Despite the habitat degradation and fragmentation, the Maggie supports 4 or 5 remnant Lahontan cutthroat trout populations and is widely regarded as one of the best prospects for establishing a metapopulation, today’s golden standard of salmonid conservation. In looking towards this goal, the Bureau of Land Management initiated partnerships with local ranchers and Newmont Mining Corporation to improve grazing practices (including exclusion at many locations) and remove barriers to fish movement. Changes in grazing management were implemented a few years ago, and riparian vegetation has made a comeback with some indication that main stem water temperatures are dropping to viable levels. Now, the task turns to culvert replacement to reconnect the isolated populations. Trout Unlimited joined restoration efforts on Maggie Creek in 2001 as part of its new Strategies for Restoring Native Trout program. The Strategies program combines watershed restoration activities with a research and evaluation component to address some of the most pressing information needs in the conservation of inland native trout. Most salmonid restoration is conducted without this evaluation component because of budget and time constraints within the agencies heading the projects. Therefore, we plan to monitor the cutthroat trout populations before and after culvert replacement including genetics, population size, age structure and movement, to supplement existing restoration efforts and provide essential data for evaluating, planning, and implementing future large-scale restoration efforts. We began monitoring cutthroat populations in the Maggie drainage in 2001, with basin wide electrofishing surveys on Little Jack and Coyote creeks, two critical Lahontan cutthroat trout tributaries. However, a wildfire in the Beaver Creek subbasin, the tributary slated for culvert replacement, halted our fish work for the year. In 2002, Warren Colyer, Strategies Field Coordinator, was back out in the field for a follow-up survey on Coyote Creek, now designated as our reference system. He was also able to survey cutthroat trout in Beaver Creek, but only after a late summer flash flood wiped out fish habitat in the lower reaches. The culvert comes out next summer, so we will test methods to trap and mark large fluvial fish in the spring and continue annual electrofishing surveys in the fall. The Strategies for Restoring Native Trout program supports four watershed projects that improve or expand existing aquatic habitat for native trout on Maggie Creek (NV), Deep Creek (UT), Bear River (UT-WY), and the Rio Grande (CO-NM). |
