Comments on: Obama Keeps Roads Out of National Forests — For Now http://sf.streetsblog.org/2009/05/28/obama-keeps-roads-out-of-national-forests-%e2%80%94-for-now/ Covering San Francisco's livable streets movement Tue, 07 Feb 2012 16:15:00 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: marcos http://sf.streetsblog.org/2009/05/28/obama-keeps-roads-out-of-national-forests-%e2%80%94-for-now/comment-page-1/#comment-5849 marcos Fri, 29 May 2009 15:47:08 +0000 http://sf.streetsblog.org/?p=2262#comment-5849 Forest service roads are generally not paved, just bulldozed into the hillside, at least in the American west. These roads are used by private companies for logging pursuant to federal entitlements, and once a roaded slope has been clearcut, the combination of lack of vegetation and road cut leads to rampant erosion and destruction of riparian areas. Wilderness areas are generally defined as lands further than a certain distance of a road. Coincidentally, I was reading a wiki article about the Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument in preparation for our trip to Utah next week, where it was claimed that the Kaiparowits Plateau in the GSENM was the largest contiguous roadless area in the lower 48 and came across the FS roadless website on Wednesday. Small web. My recollection was that the Frank Church River of No Return WIlderness in Idaho is larger, and a quick trip to wolframalpha.com conformed my suspicions. If you've never seen, heard or felt the vibrations of a wild, undammed river flowing, check out the Salmon River at the margin of the FCRONW near Dixie ID, where you can look out at the largest contiguous roadless area in the lower 48. See: 45°24'14.27"N , 115°31'39.52"W -marc Forest service roads are generally not paved, just bulldozed into the hillside, at least in the American west.

These roads are used by private companies for logging pursuant to federal entitlements, and once a roaded slope has been clearcut, the combination of lack of vegetation and road cut leads to rampant erosion and destruction of riparian areas.

Wilderness areas are generally defined as lands further than a certain distance of a road.

Coincidentally, I was reading a wiki article about the Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument in preparation for our trip to Utah next week, where it was claimed that the Kaiparowits Plateau in the GSENM was the largest contiguous roadless area in the lower 48 and came across the FS roadless website on Wednesday. Small web. My recollection was that the Frank Church River of No Return WIlderness in Idaho is larger, and a quick trip to wolframalpha.com conformed my suspicions.

If you’ve never seen, heard or felt the vibrations of a wild, undammed river flowing, check out the Salmon River at the margin of the FCRONW near Dixie ID, where you can look out at the largest contiguous roadless area in the lower 48.

See: 45°24’14.27″N , 115°31’39.52″W

-marc

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