WA's Wilderness Roads and Trails in Bad Shape
Chris Thomas, News Director
Friday, June 22, 2007
Washington, D.C./Seattle, WA - If you can't fix 'em, close 'em. That's the U.S. Forest Service position on thousands of miles of remote roads and trails in Washington, and conservation groups agree. They are crumbling due to lack of maintenance, affecting wildlife habitat and water quality. Washington Congressman Norm Dicks is asking for federal funding to repair some roads, and take others out of commission. Mike Anderson of The Wilderness Society says closing them makes sense.
“They have old culverts that are rusting out, and once those culverts wear out or get plugged, the water's gonna just run right over those roads and cause landslides, cause terrible pollution of creeks, and hurt a lot of the salmon habitat.”
Anderson notes that if Congress approves the funding, it'll be a big job. There are 20,000 miles of Forest Service roads in Washington alone, and the agency has an agreement with the state that requires major improvements by the year 2016.
The record rainfall last November resulted in $30 million in damage to Forest Service roads in Washington, but the agency receives only three million dollars per year for road maintenance, so they continue to deteriorate.
“It's not a problem that we can just ignore and hope will take care of itself because a lot of these roads are going to fail if they are not closed and properly 'put to bed.'”
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