So there simply isn't the money available to build new roads. And not enough timber flowing over existing logging roads to even pay for maintaining them. Logging traffic on national forests has gone from 42,000 vehicles a day in 1990 to 15,000 a day now while recreational use has grown to 1.7 million vehicles a day. The Forest Service estimates that 80 percent of that use is on just 20 percent of the roads. Chris West of the timber industry organization American Forest Resources Counsel in Portland, Ore., criticized the decision to scale back forest roads.
More people see our national forests via roads than trails.
This administration turned its back on that. Click here to send your ideas to The Sun.