The Multiple Use and Sustained Yield Act requires that the Forest Service manage for six separate uses, all of which require roads and the maintenance of roads. To carry out the forest plans on the nation s lands, the Forest Service has to have roads, and that requires a road budget for maintenance as well as construction. Critics of Forest Service road construction state it represents a subsidy for the forest products industry. This is not true. The primary use of roads in the national forest system is for recreation access.
More people visit the national forests than the national parks by a factor of two.
Severe cuts in the Forest Service s road maintenance budget have forced the Forest Service to use the purchaser road credit program as the primary method of road maintenance and construction. The appropriations bill itself provides one pot of funding for road construction. However, almost the entire line item goes toward the reconstruction and repair of existing roads. This road maintenance is critical to helping maintain healthy forests. A road in a serious state of disrepair can be a critical forest health problem and can contribute to undesirable conditions far from forest borders.