I am Ron Stewart, Deputy Chief for Programs and Legislation for the USDA Forest Service, and I am accompanied by Thomas L. Mills, Director of the Pacific Northwest Research Station.
Forest roads are an essential part of the transportation system in many rural parts of the country.
They help to meet the recreation demands while providing economic opportunities from the National Forest System. The benefits of forest roads are many, but roads also create many ecological impacts on our watersheds. As the Natural Resource Agenda emphasizes, the Forest Service needs to maintain a road system to provide public access while reducing and reversing their environmental effects. The revised road policy is an essential part in implementing the agenda. Second, the Forest Service is developing a road analysis procedure.