[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 83 (Monday, June 27, 1994)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: June 27, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                   ROADLESS AREAS IN NATIONAL FORESTS

                                 ______


                       HON. GEORGE E. BROWN, JR.

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                         Monday, June 27, 1994

  Mr. BROWN of California. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to give my support 
to the Appropriations Committee's recommendations to the Forest Service 
on policy regarding roadless areas in our national forests. At a time 
when the Congress is facing tightening budget constraints, it is 
irresponsible to continue to ask the public to subsidize new road 
construction in the roadless areas of our national forests.
  I recently joined 56 of my colleagues in sending a letter to Chairman 
Sidney Yates urging the Subcommittee on Interior Appropriations to 
provide a 1-year moratorium on entry into roadless areas of the 
national forests by the Forest Service in the fiscal year 1995 Interior 
appropriations bill. While unfortunately, this recommendation was not 
adopted, it is encouraging that the committee has recognized the need 
to curb additional road building in areas that have not already felt 
the damaging effects of such a disturbance by expressing their concern 
formally within the context of the bill's report language. The National 
Forest System already contains over 350,000 miles of roads, roughly 
eight times more than the Interstate Highway System.
  Environmentally, roadless areas are extremely valuable in preserving 
ecological diversity and contributing to an overall healthy ecosystem. 
Roadless areas provide contiguous wildlife habitats that allow small 
animals easier and unrestricted movement across ecosystem boundaries. 
Construction of roads inevitably results in the alteration of watershed 
hydrology and in increased rates of soil erosion. Particularly in areas 
with steep terrain and shallow, erodible soils, these sediments fill 
streams and imperil native fish and other aquatic life. This in turn 
threatens commercial and recreational fishing industries that, in the 
Pacific Northwest alone, supply over 60,000 jobs.
  Economically, road construction in our National Forest System is a 
burden to the U.S. taxpayer. Roadless areas have less timber relative 
to other lands and are associated with higher logging costs. Millions 
of dollars could be saved annually by reducing or restricting road 
construction in the roadless areas of the national forests due to the 
fact that the economic costs of building and maintaining logging roads 
often exceed the proceeds from timber sales that take place in these 
remote areas.
  I thank the committee for their consideration of this issue and 
support their recommendation to the Forest Service to refrain from 
building roads in now roadless areas of our national forests.

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