Wildfires and Roadless Areas
Excerpts from the US Forest Service Roadless Rule DEIS and FEIS

Compiled by Timothy Ingalsbee, Ph.D.,
Western Fire Ecology Center,
(541) 302-6218, fire@efn.org

"Less than 1% of all moderate-to-high risk forests in inventoried roadless areas would be manipulated using timber harvest to meet fuel management objectives over the next five years."
(FEIS; Vol. 3, p.18)

"(C)urrently there are few intersections of the wildland-urban interface and inventoried roadless areas."
(FEIS, Vol. 3, p.18)

"Prohibiting timber harvest would limit one option for treating forest fuels. However, because the amount of acres expected to be treated the first five years through timber harvest is less than 1% of all inventoried roadless area lands needing fuel treatment, the effect of timber harvesting would be negligible to the overall fire suppression program."
(FEIS; Vol. 3, p.20)

"…little to no human infrastructure is located within most inventoried roadless areas. On a national scale, 86.7% of the land within one mile of National Forest System inventoried roadless area boundaries has fewer than three people per square mile."
(FEIS, Vol. 3, p.21)

"The analysis revealed that under a national prohibition on road construction and reconstruction, any increase in wildland fires escaping initial attack would not rise above the 11 year average of 17 large (1,000 acres or larger) fires per year. It further revealed that 98% of all fires ignited inside inventoried roadless areas would be successfully controlled at a relatively small size."
(FEIS, Vol. 3, p.22)

"The actual number of fire-hazard reduction projects in roadless areas needed to protect private property along the border of the WUI is very low."
(FEIS, Vol. 3, p.23)

"Scientific analysis in the DEIS (p. 3-158) revealed that building roads into high-risk fire areas can actually increase the risk of human-caused fires."
(FEIS, Vol. 3, p.24)

"The DEIS and other national assessments reveal that areas with more roads actually have a higher potential for uncharacteristic wildfire than unroaded areas (USDA-Forest Service. 1996. Status of the Interior Columbia Basin: Summary of Scientific Findings. November. Portland, OR: Pacific Northwest Research Station) Fire management trends were used to determine the effect the proposed action would have on fire suppression capability. The analysis revealed that a national prohibition on road construction and reconstruction would not result in an increase in wildland fires escaping initial attack. A review of fire occurrence data for inventoried roadless areas further revealed that 98% of all fires ignited inside inventoried roadless areas would be successfully controlled at a relatively small size…(T)he effect of the road construction prohibition on the fire suppression program is expected to be negligible."
(FEIS, Vol. 3, p.24)

"In an analysis of 20th Century fire patterns, the location of multiple-burn sites indicated that they were associated with busy roads (McKelvey and Busse. 1996. Sierra Nevada Ecosystem Project Report to Congress, Vol. 2) The scientific assessments of the Interior Columbia River Basin also point out an increased probability of human-caused fire in roaded areas (Hann and others, 1997)."
(FEIS, Vol. 1, 3-75)

"Regardless of whether there is a prohibition on road construction and reconstruction or a prohibition on timber harvest in inventoried roadless areas, the highest priorities for fuel management work will continue to be on National Forest System lands outside of roadless areas where natural resource values or potential threats to human communities are highest. This point has been validated in two recent government reports. The first document, a Report to the President titled 'Managing the Impact of Wildfires on Communities and the Environment' (White House, 2000), notes that a top priority for reducing wildland fire risk is to reduce fuels in forests and rangelands adjacent to, and within communities. The second report, 'Protecting People and Sustaining Resources in Fire-Adapted Ecosystems: A Cohesive Strategy' (Laverty and Williams, 2000), addressed the need to restore roaded and managed landscapes in close proximity to communities…(I)t is assumed that fire hazard reduction work would not begin in inventoried roadless areas for at least 20 years, the estimated time it would take to address the extremely hazardous fuel situations outside roadless areas. (Some agency personnel think the 20-year timeframe is overly optimistic, and that it would take a much longer period to correct the hazardous fuel situations in roaded landscapes)."
(FEIS, Vol. 1, 3-78)