The Wildlands Project [Roads]

Return to Slide Show | Site Map | Home | Summary | Glossary | Email

Roads
Since roads provide human access to remote areas, perhaps it should come as no surprise that an organization has formed which has as its primary objective the closing and removal of roads on public lands. The Road Removal Implementation Project (ROAD-RIP) grew out of The Wildlands Project's (TWP) vision with the primary purpose of laying, "…the groundwork for protecting and restoring wildland ecosystems by eliminating roads." This is necessary because in order to expand the system of reserves and corridors envisioned by TWP, large roadless are needed throughout the continent. Viewing connectivity as a key, ROAD-RIPpers ask, "…what bigger disrupter of connectivity is there than a road?" Therefore, according to an article in Wild Earth (Winter 1995/96) by Kraig Klungness and Katie Alvord Scarborough (co-founders of ROAD-RIP), ROAD-RIP, "…has the same ultimate goal as TWP: big wilderness as home for the unimpeded evolutionary journeys of North America's myriad native species." In January 1997, ROAD-RIP changed its name to the less abrasive Wildlands Center for Preventing Roads, Wildlands CPR. According to information released by the organization, "Our focus is specific: Wildlands CPR seeks the protection and recovery of large-scale wilderness and biodiversity by removing roads and preventing new road construction on public lands." The Wildlands Project and the Biodiversity Legal Foundation, "a non-profit organization which pursues aggressive legal strategies to preserve native wild plants and animals, communities of species ecosystems, and natural landscapes", lead the Wildlands CPR coalition. Claiming that, "THE ROAD TO WILDERNESS RECOVERY…IS NO ROAD AT ALL," Wildlands CPR maintains that the best road density goal for maintaining and restring ecological processes is, "ZERO-NO ROADS AT ALL." Their definition of a road "includes everything from interstate highways down to two-track logging roads, off-road vehicle trails, and snowmobile routes." By using TWP vision maps, Wildlands CPR is targeting the roads necessary for closing in order to bring about large-scale North American wilderness recovery. Believing that, "In order to assure the connectivity that TWP envisions, we need to close roads-lots of roads-…" Wildlands CPR maintains that a program like theirs is essential to the success of The Wildlands Project. Klungness and Scarborough write that Wildlands CPR, "will help make the grand vision of The Wildlands Project a reality, piece by roadless, interconnected piece." To help activists close and remove roads ROAD-RIP published a series of guides in 1995 and 1996 collectively distributed as the ROAD-RIPPER'S HANDBOOK. The publication of these guides was made possible by the financial support of the Conservation Alliance and the Foundation for Deep Ecology. While one would naturally assume that there would be guides for Forest Service (FS), and Bureau of Land Management (BLM) lands since these have traditionally supported resource industries, there is also a guide for National Park Service (NPS) land. Since NPS lands are primarily intended for recreational and educational use, some might find it surprising that Wildlands CPR would object to access of these lands too. In the 1999 January/February issue of The Road-RIPorter Bethanie Walder, Director of Wildlands CPR wrote, "As simple as it may seem, if we can stop the roads now, then we have a lot less timber sales, mines and motorized recreation to stop later." On the basis of that statement it is apparent that Ms. Walder considers motorized recreation (the most popular form of public land recreation) to be undesirable too. Indeed, one of the guides distributed in the HANDBOOK is titled, "The Road-Rippers Guide to Off-Road Vehicles." In a Road-RIPorter article published in 1997, Marianne Moulton criticized non-motorized recreation as well, writing, "As more Americans find their way into the backcountry, the unknown risks to the natural world increases. The shocking truth is that trails have impacts similar to roads. (emphasis added)" Recreation on public lands also came under censure in an article by Scott Silver concerned about the Forest Service's increasing emphasis on what Silver referred to as "industrial recreation." Silver wrote, "With recreation fueling the agency bureaucracy, forest activists may need to shift at least some of their attention from timber to recreation…If managed poorly, or managed primarily as a cash generating tool, then a shift to "Industrial Recreation" is hardly an improvement over the old Forest Service ways." Silver seems most disturbed about the Forest Service's recreation fee program, calling it "just another tax", and the partnership between the Forest Service and the American Recreation Coalition (ARC). This view of the fee program draws an interesting comparison. For years, Forest Service recreation has been the most heavily subsidized program of the Service. In 1997 (the last year for which figures are available), the Forest Service recreation program lost $264.6 million. After years of arguing for the elimination of money loosing timber sale programs, one can now wonder if activists will show similar fiscal concern when it comes to recreation. In any event, Wildlands CPR seem determined to resist almost any type of public land use that requires access. Something recreational enthusiasts might want to consider when determining if they should support The Wildlands Project.