The Road-RIPorter

Bimonthly Newsletter of the Wildlands Center for Preventing Roads. March/April 1997. Volume 2 # 2

Kalmiopsis Wild Land After the 1964 Wilderness Act, the Kalmiopsis roads
were given trail numbers and made to serve wilderness

Threatened by Roads
by Barbara Ullian
“Few completely roadless, large watersheds exist in
the Pacific Northwest, but those that remain relatively
undisturbed play critical roles in sustaining sensitive
native species and important ecosystem processes.”
—Dr. Chris Frissell, A New Strategy for Watershed
Restoration and Recovery of Pacific Salmon in the Pa-
cific Northwest, 1993.
hikers as the primary access to the Chetco River from the
east side of the Wilderness. But despite the area’s Wilder-
ness designation, the mining threat in the Kalmiopsis
remained and the roads were often maintained by bulldozers
and driven by miners and anyone else who could get a key.
Others vandalized or drove around the agency-placed
Wilderness gates.
There is a long history of vandalism and destruction of
the two gates on these roads. Often they would remain open
for weeks on end. Mining claim owners have also abused
their privileged access and passed their gate keys around to

T
he 179,000-acre Kalmiopsis Wilderness and its
adjacent roadless areas in southwest Oregon’s
Siskiyou Mountains hold the largest remaining block
of wild country on the Lower 48 States’ Pacific Coast. There
are three National Wild and Scenic Rivers—the Chetco,
Illinois, and N. Fork Smith—running through the Kalmiopsis.
Unlike typical high elevation Wilderness Areas, the
Kalmiopsis contains many miles of high quality spawning
and rearing habitat for wild salmon, steelhead, and anadro-
mous cutthroat trout. Southwest Oregon’s steelhead trout
and coho salmon, which inhabit the Kalmiopsis’ rivers, have
been proposed for listing under the federal Endangered
Species Act.
Despite their remoteness and solitude, the Kalmiopsis
Wilderness and adjacent roadless lands are now embroiled
in controversy over old bulldozed mining roads and the
impacts of their use on ancient cedar, endangered salmon, Road crossing the Chetco River. Barbara Ullian photo.
and wilderness values in general. Two roads in particular
strike to the core of the debate—and, as it so happens, others. In one case, two Forest Service employees observed
threaten to pierce the heart of the Kalmiopsis itself. a large party of individuals in 4-wheel drive vehicles open
The Kalmiopsis was designated a Wild Area in 1946 by the Onion Camp gate with a key and drive into the Wilder-
the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, and gained Congressional ness. The Forest Service has never prosecuted known
protection with the passage of the 1964 Wilderness Act. violators of the Wilderness’ motorized vehicle prohibition.
Although there is no record of authorization for its construc- For one of the claims accessed by the second road, the
tion, the first bulldozed mining road, from Onion Camp to Forest Service has received plans for a large placer mine and
the Little Chetco River, appeared in the 1940s. The original processing plant on the banks of the Chetco River. The plan
owners of mining claims on the Little Chetco were granted calls for two cemented crossings of the Wild Chetco River
motorized ingress and egress in 1963 and made two or three and reconstruction of the fifteen-mile route through the
trips per year. The second road emerged in 1961, when the Kalmiopsis. Now the public is faced with either spending
claimant of 2,100 acres of placer mines on the Chetco River millions of dollars to purchase the mining claims or risk
took two bulldozers, a grader, a dump truck, and assorted 4- large-scale mining deep in the Wilderness.
wheel drive vehicles to blaze fifteen miles of road across The owner of sixty acres of mining claims patented in
some of the most rugged country on the West Coast. He 1988 and 100 acres of unpatented claims on the Little
neither gave notice to nor received authorization from the Chetco River, after years of being allowed by the Forest
Forest Service. Despite the Wild Area designation, the Service to access the patented land without the required
agency’s only action was to ask the miner, after the illegal special use permit or an approved plan of operation, is now
construction, to sign a Special Use Permit which required
him to maintain the Wilderness road.
see “Kalmiopsis” on page 3
 From the Wildlands CPR Office...
President Clinton cuts funding for forest road construction...The Grand Canyon
proposes banning all private autos by the year 2000...Yosemite National Park closes
because of flooding and road failures...Yellowstone bison are threatened by groomed
snowmobile trails...Congress targets road construction in a campaign to cut corporate Wildlands
welfare. C
Center for
These are just a few of the ways roads made it into the national news in the past
P
Preventing
few months, and we look at them all in further detail in this issue of the Road- R
Roads
RIPorter. We’ve combined the legal and bibliography notes in this issue by compil-
ing a detailed report on the bison in Yellowstone. We know the issue is quite P.O. Box 7516
Missoula, MT 59807
specific, but also think that this highlights the incredible scope of impacts motorized (406) 543-9551
recreation can cause. Bibliography notes in the next issue will be more general, wildlandsCPR@wildrockies.org
with a focus on the spread of non-native species via roads. www.wildrockies.org/ROADRIP

Muchas Gracias
Thanks to both the Turner Foundation Wildlands Center for Preventing
and the Konsgaard-Goldman Foundation
In this Issue Roads is a national coalition of
grassroots groups and individuals
for generously supporting our work for the Kalmiopsis Threatened, p. 1 working to reverse the severe
next year. And thanks too, to all of you Barbara Ullian ecological impacts of wildland roads.
who have sent in donations in the past few We seek to protect native ecosystems
months—they are much appreciated. We Odes to Roads, p. 4 and biodiversity by recreating an
are also grateful to authors of articles and Kraig Klungness interconnected network of roadless
public wildlands.
essays for this newsletter. Your words and
work are worth their weight in road- Legislative Update, p. 5
ripping machinery! Director
Legal/Bibliography Notes, Bethanie Walder
p. 6
Welkommen James Barnes Office Assistant
Wildlands CPR welcomes John Dillon Aaron Jones
and Scott Bagley for two special projects. Regional Reports, pp. 8-9
John will be presenting a slide show tour in Interns & Volunteers
Outreach & Workshops, p. 10 Chuck Cottrell
April in the Southern Rockies, Utah and
Scott Bagley
Wyoming. Check the outreach section on Video Review, p. 11
page 10 for more information. Newsletter
Dave Havlick, Jim Coefield
Scott is working on our new Road-Ripper’s Guide to Road Removal and Restora-
tion, due out in December 1997. We know lots of you are trying to gain a better Steering Committee
Katie Alvord
understanding of effective and ineffective methods of road removal and this guide Kraig Klungness
will help you do just that. It will include information on prioritizing roads, assessing Sidney Maddock
road removal/decommissioning proposals, understanding different techniques, and Rod Mondt
implementing road removal in different ecological regions, including tundra, desert, Cara Nelson
mountain and wetland. If you have any information you want to pass on to Scott, Mary O'Brien
Tom Skeele
please give us a call or send it to the office.
Advisory Committee
Beaux Arts Jasper Carlton
Libby Ellis
Thanks to office assistant and le bon artiste Aaron Jones for his drawing in this Dave Foreman
issue of the Road-RIPorter. Thanks, too, to Elizabeth O’Leary and John Jonik for Keith Hammer
their line drawings. We are looking for additional drawings and graphics to use in Timothy Hermach
our newsletter. Please contact us if you would like to share your artistic talents. Marion Hourdequin
Lorin Lindner
Andy Mahler
Say It Ain’t So! Robert McConnell
We made two mistakes in the last issue of the RIPorter. The quote by Aldo Stephanie Mills
Leopold on the back cover and in the essay “Driven Wild” should read, “recreational Reed Noss
Michael Soulé
development is a job not of building roads into lovely country, but of building Dan Stotter
receptivity into the still unlovely human mind.” Steve Trombulak
We also neglected one citation from Bibliography Notes: Louisa Willcox
Burkey, T.V. 1993. Edge effect in seed and egg predation at two neotropical rainforest Bill Willers
sites. Ecological Conservation, 66:139-143. Howie Wolke

2 The Road-RIPorter March/April 1997

 Kalmiopsis, cont.
demanding motorized access on a twelve-mile long mining
road known as trails 1124 and 1129. Ostensibly the access is
for a planned wilderness resort and for hauling logs from the
patented claims.
The owner of the patented Little Chetco claims petitioned
the Curry County Commissioners to declare Wilderness trails
1124 and 1129 public rights-of-way under RS 2477 (RIPorter
vol.1, no. 1). After the dust settled, the Commissioners
withdrew the original resolution and replaced it with one
stating that the road “has not been abandoned or terminated
by Curry County” and it “is a necessary-right-of-way acquired
and protected under federal and Oregon laws” and that the
owners of the patented and unpatented claims “have the right
of motorized access over the road to carry out their activities.”
The final resolution does not reference RS 2477, but it is
unclear what implications the new language will have on
motorized use of the Kalmiopsis Wilderness trails.
Ultimately, the claimant’s efforts may prove to be a land
speculation ploy reminiscent of other mining law scams in
Colorado’s West Elk Wilderness, or the highly-publicized on-

Barbara Ullian
going New World Mine buyout near Yellowstone National Park.
In 1994, the owner of the patented claims wrote the Forest
Service offering to sell the claims back to the public for
$850,000. He paid $150 for the claims in 1988.

P
lanted firmly in the midst of the Kalmiopsis controversy
is a water-loving conifer endemic to southwest Oregon
and northern California called the Port Orford cedar.
Port Orford cedar grows principally in riparian areas and
wetlands where it shades streams, stabilizes streambanks and
floodplains, and provides significant habitat for aquatic,
terrestrial, and avian species. In 1995, researchers confirmed
that a virulent non-native root disease, Phytophthora lateralis,
had been introduced to the Kalmiopsis Wilderness (RIPorter
vol. I, no. 4).
For approximately eight miles of the Little Chetco, the Port
Orford cedar is the dominant vegetation. Cedars here, and on
the mainstem Chetco below, are infected with root disease.
Loss of streamside cedar from the disease is expected to
increase water temperatures and accelerate erosion.
Once introduced into a watershed, there is no effective
means to eradicate the root disease, which is spread primarily
by the transport of its spores trapped in the mud on the
bottom of vehicles and equipment. The disease can spread
rapidly downstream and kill entire stands of Port Orford cedar.
According to the Siskiyou National Forest, the introduction of
this non-native pathogen into the Kalmiopsis Wilderness was
not likely the result of roads or vehicles, is not “significant,” at
the most only 1,000 acres of the Wilderness will be affected,
and the presence of the root disease in the Wilderness is not of
concern because it surfaced in a remote area. In fact, the root
disease is found all along the Little Chetco River and the area
of the mining claims. Not coincidentally, these are accessed by
a road—a road that has been subject to increasing and unau-
thorized 4-wheel drive motorized travel, and heavy equipment
operation; a road which can facilitate mining, resort develop-
ment, and logging.
As irreparable as the loss of ancient riparian cedar and
the introduction of this root disease into the Wilderness is, it
would be even more tragic if continued motorized traffic
spread the disease into the upper watershed of the Kalmiopsis.
Mention road closures in southwest Oregon and northern
California and the foul stench of fear and loathing chokes any
rational debate. While road-induced threats to Port Orford
cedar and the wild land, rivers and species of the Kalmiopsis
would dictate that the USFS deny motorized access in the
Wilderness and adjacent roadless areas, and permanently
close eroding mining roads, the agency instead points to the
terms of the 1872 Mining Law and promotes 4-wheel drive
recreational opportunities in the press and on the Internet.
The roads in the Kalmiopsis wild lands were and are the
construct of those who claim the 1872 Mining Law gives them
rank and privilege over the rest of the public and the nation’s
laws including the Wilderness, Clean Water, and Endangered
Species Acts. These miners and land speculators have taken
and done what they want to these precious public lands and
rivers, often on only their own authority. These supposed
icons of rugged individualism and western independence,
further demand that the public subsidize their pursuit of
monetary wealth, whether it be for gold or real estate specula-
tion on prime riverfront National Forest Wilderness lands.
Barbara Ullian is the Conservation Director for the Siskiyou
Regional Educational Project, (541) 474-2265.
What You Can Do -
The Kalmiopsis needs your help. The Siskiyou National
Forest is preparing an environmental impact statement (EIS)
for the Alleman Special Use Permit (Little Chetco mining
claims). The Draft EIS is due for release in late April, 1997.
Contact Mary Zuschlag, Illinois Valley RD, 26568 Redwood
Highway, Cave Junction, OR 97523; (541)-592-2166; and
request a copy of the DEIS. Insist on full protection of the Port
Orford cedar, Chetco and Little Chetco Rivers, and strictly-
enforced closures for all motorized use on trails # 1102, 1124,
1129, and road #087.

The Road-RIPorter March/April 1997 3


Odes to Roads
The Two-Track and the
Beer Can
What Ripping a Road Affirms
By Kraig Klungness
I
clearly remember my first anger at a road. It was a crisp
November morning in 1967, not far from my grandfather’s
cabin near the Michigamme River in Michigan’s Upper
Peninsula. I was fourteen and ecstatic over the newfound
independence of finally being allowed to venture into the
woods alone to hunt whitetail deer.
After sitting perfectly still for three early-morning hours
by an old white pine overlooking a deer run, I got antsy and
decided to stalk eastward onto adjacent state lands and
unfamiliar ground. I wanted deeper woods and greater
distance from the other hunters I knew were around, to
experience a more wild hunt.
I meandered through mixed hardwoods, teetered atop the
springy sphagnum moss of a spruce bog, and traversed a rise
of birch. Emerging from a dense grouping of spruce and fir, I
pulled some dry bracken fern from my boot laces, and found
myself on the edge of a two-track logging road. Startled, I
heard an engine just around the bend, coming my way. I
wanted to duck behind a spruce and hide as the vehicle
passed, but it was too late for that. So I stood there, awk-
wardly, as a large four-wheel-drive wagon with three hunters
pulled up and stopped.
The driver asked if I’d seen any deer and I gave what from
then on became my standard answer for such questions: NO.
He grunted a response and threw an empty Hamms beer can—
you know, the land of sky blue waters—into the woods. In
perfect mimicry, his red-capped buddy in the back seat did the
same. I stood there, angry and dismayed, as I watched the
vehicle move on, waddling from side to side through puddles
and pot holes.
Though only fourteen, I had been coming to my
grandfather’s cabin and joyfully immersing myself in the
surrounding woods for ten years. The older I got, the more I
explored on my own. By the time of this incident, I felt a
budding knowledge and love of the ways and beings of this
place—the old-growth we called “the pines,” the tag alder
swamp and a chunk of upland in its middle we called “the
island,” the gray jays we called “whiskey jacks,” the river, the
red squirrels, the weasels, the woodchuck, the bobcat, the
black bear, the Canada lynx that held my grandfather and me
spellbound as it passed through fresh snow within one-
hundred feet of us on one year’s trek to get a Christmas tree.
It was always exciting to expand my range of travel, to go
farther out and discover more. But that one incident, those
beer cans, their ill-mannered tossing, the power wagon, the
goddamn road, changed my whole world right there. The
place seemed smaller, less enchanted, less wild, more threat-
ened.
It wasn't just the two-track and the littering, but the
attitude they symbolized. It was the same attitude that
resulted in the clearcuts I later found down that same road, the
4 The Road-RIPorter March/April 1997
stagnated water where the road bed dammed a marsh’s natural
drainage, and the nearby gunnysack of rotting meat hanging
from a tree limb over steel-jawed traps set for coyotes.
At fourteen I could not clearly articulate all the nuances
and implications of what I felt that day. But I knew in my gut
that what had happened was part of a much larger form of
disregard that was not good for me, those woods, or any other
wild place. Now, after thirty more years marked with similar
experiences, much thought about them, and much reading, I
have more to say.
Just as that two-track was part of a much larger monster,
working for the prevention, removal, and revegetation of
roads—road-ripping for short—is part of a much larger
configuration of ecological acts and values. It symbolizes their
enlivenment just as those boorishly tossed beer cans symbol-
ized their defacement. The strength I feel in opposition to this
defacement lies not in the opposition itself, but in what it
affirms.
First, the work of road-ripping affirms the inviolate
identity of a wild place you know and love. Most of us have
had experiences similar to mine with similar feelings. Those
feelings tell you something, that something is wrong, and you
can use the energy they give to respond. It’s personal sweat-
and-tears work to remedy an injury to a place that, when it
hurts, you hurt.
A. Jones
Second, road-ripping affirms tolerance: tolerance for
natural diversity in all its varied forms. It helps create the
space for manifold wild beings, including humans, to thrive
and evolve and celebrate their own call of the wild. At the
same time we learn what cannot be tolerated in order to
conserve a collective good that includes the nonhuman.
Third, road-ripping affirms quietude. A place without
roads and motors is a much softer, quieter, more welcoming
place, for people and wild things. Engine noise clutters the air
with mechanical uncleanliness, shrinking spaciousness down
to the bark of internal combustion. Getting engines off the
land takes us a long way toward hearing nature, toward
solitude and silence, toward a practice of quietude.
Fourth, road-ripping affirms the intrinsic value of wild
nature—wilderness for its own sake and not for what it can
become to the human enterprise. By preventing the intrusions
that accompany roads we allow the land community to
flourish independent of commercial, recreational, and scenic
values.
Nature’s intrinsic worth is so important. It’s fundamental.
It’s not just intellectual. Breathe it, feel it, walk it. It’s inherent
in the domain of the more-than-human, of goshawk, river
otter, butterwort, pinyon pine, wood turtle, panther, bull trout,
mountain and river. Road-ripping works to prevent their
desecration in a spirit of good ecological manners.
Fifth, road-ripping affirms and accepts limits, one thing
that industrial growth society abhors. By promoting unlimited
access, industrial society strives for unconditional power over
wild nature, the ultimate violation of its intrinsic value. By
thwarting this power, road-ripping goes a long way toward
making wildland access ecologically accountable.
Road-ripping stops access for machinery and the churlish
romping of ORVs, the trails of which are roads, and the self-
made routes of which are a form of road-building. Limiting
their access to conserve a greater good is a form of respect
that goes far deeper than superficial matters of lifestyle or
taste. Accepting limits is part of the work of maturing; when
we understand this, we see that road-ripping is a mature act.
Sixth, allowing vast areas of roadless country affirms wild
nature’s self-order. We allow the land to be, without subject-
Accepting limits is part of the
work of maturing; when we
understand this, we see that road-
ripping is a mature act.
ing it to human manipulations. The larger the area of wild
land, the greater its self-will, which is the essence of wilder-
ness. Every road obliterated, every roadless acre added to any
wild area enhances that land’s self-order, its sovereignty, its
wildness.
This, too, is fundamental, and it ties in with all of the
previous principles discussed: with love of place, with
tolerance for natural diversity, with quietude, with intrinsic
value, with limits. If you love a wild place, have tolerance for
its natural diversity, respect its quietude, feel its intrinsic
worth and therefore respect the limits that arise from this,
then you don’t attempt to exert control, you do not dominate,
you do not manipulate. You just rip the damn roads as far out
as you can and allow the land its autonomy. Managerialism
has no place here. Wilderness should truly be a big blank spot
on the map.
S
ince that crisp November day in 1967, I’ve had my
favorite route up Lookout Mountain severed by a forty-
foot-wide road corridor. Ditto for East Bluff. The woods
surrounding a favorite trout stream were roaded and clearcut
to within twenty feet of the stream’s banks. Now there’s a
movement to open the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilder-
ness to trucks and jeeps. Last week, I read that large portions
of Alaska’s wildlands, our last great wilderness, are spotted
with yellow metal pipes signifying road easements.
In The Practice of the Wild, Gary Snyder laments the
“slow-motion explosion of expanding world economies” and
pleads:
If the lad or lass is among us who knows where the
secret heart of this Growth-Monster is hidden, let them
please tell us where to shoot the arrow that will slow it
down. And if the secret heart stays secret and our work
is made no easier, I for one will keep working for wil-
derness day by day.
It’s an apt metaphor for the situation with roads, the monster’s
tentacles.
The Road-RIPorter March/April 1997
Remember each day what road-ripping affirms, how this
plays into your own character and defends what you love.
Then practice, day by day. Even little successes help. They
are acts of mindful regard for the wildness of place, the
natural world, and your own wild self.
That two-track road near the Michigamme River is still
there. It’s not legally amenable to closure. I now own the
hunting cabin, a gift from my departed grandfather. The road
to it has grown in with alders and spruce. I helped this to
happen. You can’t drive there anymore and I like it that way.
It is a small victory, but it looms big in my heart.
Kraig Klungness is a Northwoods wilderness activist and co-
founder of Wildlands CPR (fka ROAD-RIP).
Legislative News
From corporate welfare to budget cutting, roads are all
over the 105th Congress. In January, House Appropriations
Committee Chairman John Kasich (R-OH) held a press
conference announcing an effort to fight corporate welfare.
This effort is coming from a bipartisan coalition including
taxpayer groups and environmentalists. Road construction
on federal lands has been targeted by this group, the Green
Scissors Campaign, and even President Clinton’s budget.
Clinton’s budget proposes eliminating road purchaser
credits by October 1997. These credits are the main subsidy
by which the US government trades road construction costs
for trees with the timber industry. If a logging company
builds roads, they can then use the money spent on the road
to reduce the cost of the trees they are buying. With the
logging completed, the Forest Service is left with roads to
maintain and a gouged forest to restore. It’s a bad deal all
around (but sweet living for the timber corporations), so
eliminating road purchaser credits is an important step
toward better management and reduced subsidies to the
timber industry
We consider the following points to be important:
1) Wildland roads damage habitat, for humans and
wildlife. The road blowouts and landslides in the Intermoun-
tain and Pacific Northwest in the past two years have de-
stroyed human lives, water supplies, property, and land.
Roads also fragment wildlife habitat and dump sediment into
streams.
2) Wildland roads are an economic drain on the Ameri-
can taxpayer—in 1996, $95 million was appropriated to the
Forest Service for the construction and reconstruction of
wildland roads. An additional $81 million was appropriated
for road maintenance - a critical funding source to continue.
3) The President’s proposed budget cuts for road pur-
chaser credits and reducing timber sales in roadless areas are
a good first step toward better road policies. Funding should
continue for road maintenance and decommisioning.
What You Can Do -
Write President Clinton, Secretary of Agriculture
Glickman and your Congressional representatives:
•President Clinton, The White House, 1600 Pennsylvania
Ave., Washington, D.C. 20050.
•Secretary Glickman, USDA, 200 A Whitten Bldg., 1400
Independence Ave. SW, Washinton, D.C. 20250.
•U.S. Senate/House, Washington, D.C. 20515.
5

L e g a l/Bibliography N o t e s
The Legal Status of Snowmobiles and
their Effects on Bison in Yellowstone
National Park
edited by James Barnes.
Taken From: Adverse Effects of Trail Grooming and Snowmobile
Use on Winter Use Management in the Greater Yellowstone Area
with a Special Emphasis on Yellowstone National Park, by D.J.
Schubert, Wildlife Biologist, Meyer and Glitzenstein, on behalf of
the Fund for Animals, Inc.; Wildlands CPR; Predator Project, BLF,
Bison Advocacy Project, and Defenders of Wildlife.
A
lthough this report focuses on the impacts of motor-
ized winter use on bison, not just big animals are
affected by snowmachine use (RIPorter vol. I, no. 4).
Activists can and should incorporate many of the impacts
described here, since they are pertinent to contexts extending
well beyond the boundaries of Yellowstone National Park or
the American bison.
Snowmobiles and snow coaches impact many types of
“subnivean” animal life—that is, creatures which live below
the snow. In one study, for example, researchers reported a
marked increase in mammal mortality beneath compacted
snow. They concluded that, “Mortality of subnivean mammals
in the area packed by snowmobiles was probably due to a
combination of factors that increased winter stress to the point
where survival was impossible. Mechanical compaction of
snowfields will:
•destroy subnivean air spaces
•reduce snow depth
•increase density, thermal conductivity, thermal
diffusivity and shear strength of snow.
These effects would in turn be inhibitory to mammal
movement beneath the snow and at the same time subject
subnivean organisms to greater temperature stress. There is
also the possibility that air beneath packed snow may become
Last winter, 1995-1996, the number of
snowmachines using the Park was
recorded at 74,859.
toxic because of abnormal carbon dioxide accumulation”
(Jarvinen and Schmid 1971).
Plants are also damaged by snowmobiles. Neumann and
Merriam (1972) reported that 345 of 440 saplings on a
snowmobile trail received severe (118) to minor (227) damage
as the result of a single passage by one snowmobile. The
authors predicted that those saplings which suffered severe
damage would probably die. In another study, seventy percent
of the trees in the area were damaged by snowmobiles.
Snowmobile use in Yellowstone National Park began in the
early 1960s. By 1968, when numbers had climbed to 5,000
winter visitors, the business community surrounding the park
recognized the economic boon and demanded recognized
winter access, which was granted. Today, nearly all the roads
6 The Road-RIPorter March/April 1997
in the park are groomed for winter off-road vehicle (ORV) use.
Last winter, 1995-1996, the number of snowmachines using
the Park was recorded at 74,859.
Preliminary results of 1995 and 1996 studies of air quality
at Yellowstone indicate that carbon monoxide (CO) levels in
the Park exceeded federal Clean Air Act and state ambient air
quality standards at times. Results from both years demon-
strate a positive correlation between snowmobile density and
high CO levels.
A 54.21 horsepower snowmobile (the industry average)
running at 75 percent capacity spews 360 pounds of pollution
in five hours, about the time for a round-trip from West
Southern Rockies Ecosystem Project
Yellowstone to Old Faithful and back (McMillion, 1994). For
comparison, according to EPA statistics, a modern 150-
horsepower automobile engine emits about one pound of the
same emissions. Yellowstone endured 26 million pounds of
pollution in the 1995-96 season. It seems clear that this
amount of pollution results in detrimental impacts to Park
flora, wildlife, and users. The Park Service, however, has largely
skirted the issue. For example, after complaints from park
employees at the West Yellowstone entrance of headaches,
nausea, and throat and eye irritation, the park’s response was
to renovate the tollbooths “to permit clean oxygen to be piped
into the toll booths.”
Legal Basis for Snowmobile Use
Executive Order (EO) 11644, issued by President Nixon in
1972, was intended to provide a “unified Federal policy” for
the use of off-road recreational vehicles on public lands.
(Executive Order 11644, 37 Fed. Reg. 2877 (1972) reprinted in
42 U.S.C. § 4321). Its purpose was to “establish policies and
provide for procedures that will ensure that the use of ORVs on
public lands will be controlled and directed so as to protect the
resources of those lands ... and to minimize conflicts among
the various uses of those lands.” (Id. at §1). As defined in the
EO, an ORV means “any motorized vehicle designed for or
capable of cross-country travel on or immediately over land,
water, sand, snow, ice, marsh, swampland, or other natural
terrain...” (Id. at § 2(3)) [emphasis added].
Those areas where ORV use can be permitted should be
based on, among other things, “the protection of the resources
of the public lands,” (Id. at § 3(a)), and shall “be located to
minimize harassment of wildlife or significant disruption of
wildlife habitats.” (Id. at § 3(a)(2)). Within National Parks, such
trails shall only be designated “if the respective agency head
determines that ORV use in such locations will not adversely
affect their natural, aesthetic, or scenic values.” (Id. at § (4)).
In Yellowstone National Park, the snowmobile trails were
designated to be nearly all of the unplowed roadways. In
1977, an amendment by President Carter, EO 11989, autho-
rized agencies to close areas to ORVs which may be “causing
considerable adverse effects on the soil, vegetation, wildlife,
wildlife habitat ...until ... such adverse effects have been
eliminated and ... measures have been implemented to prevent
future recurrence.” (Executive Order 11989, 42 Fed. Reg. 26959
(1977) reprinted in 42 U.S.C. § 4321)
In an abrupt and complete reversal of its previous reliance
on EO 11644 in designating snowmobile routes, the Park
Service reacted by declaring that the restrictions of EO 11644
do not apply to the vast majority of snowmobile use in
National Parks. The Park Service simply re-defined most
snowmobile use as not entailing ORV use. Specifically, the
revised regulation states that: “ORV use is not regarded as an
appropriate use in the National Park System. Therefore
snowmobiles will generally be permitted to operate on those
established roads and on frozen water ways where other motor
powered vehicles are allowed at other times. In those very
limited places where off-road use of snowmobiles is permitted
through Special Regulation, the provisions of Executive Order
11644 and 11989 will be enforced.”
Clearly, this new interpretation was designed to avoid
compliance with
the monitoring
and mandatory
closure provisions
of EO 11644, as
amended, by
arbitrarily
determining that
snowmobiles are
not ORVs when
used on estab-
lished roadways
covered with
snow. This is an
inaccurate
interpretation of
the definition of
an ORV in the EO
(above, in bold)
which is based on
vehicle design, not
type of path
traveled.
In addition,
Slaughtered bison. Cold Mts./Cold Rivers, photo. park regulations
only allow snowmobile use on “unplowed roadways.” Not a
single regulation authorizes the grooming of trails for snow-
mobile use.
Effects on Bison
Since the early 1980s, Yellowstone bison that wandered
outside the Park have been killed in a politically-charged effort
to maintain the Montana cattle industry’s brucellosis-free
status. This year has proven exceptionally lethal to
Yellowstone bison—more than 1000 have already been killed.
Dr. Mary Meagher, the leading authority on Yellowstone
bison, has concluded that “the existence of snow-packed
roads... was the largest factor in contributing to population
increase, major distributional changes, and ultimately habitat
The Road-RIPorter March/April 1997
impacts” (Meagher 1993). Groomed trails provide bison with
energy-efficient travel corridors resulting in energy savings
within traditional foraging areas while promoting range
expansion, major shifts among previously semi-isolated
subpopulations, reduction of winterkill, and enhancement of
calf survival.
The Park Service used to claim that people on
snowmachines chasing animals made up for the energy
savings, but they have given up that tack: bison don’t run. Even
bison who are initially skittish around snowmobiles quickly
become habituated to the machines (Meagher 1993, Aune
1981), thereby negating energy loss associated with avoiding
snowmobiles. For other ungulates, such evasive maneuvers in
response to snowmobiles may occur, though habituation has
also been observed in mule deer and elk in Yellowstone (Aune
1981).
According to Meagher, Yellowstone’s bison population
may be nearly double the size that would naturally exist if
groomed trails were not present. The functional winter range
is quickly declining, but “the park is not experiencing over-
grazing in the range management sense...mechanical impact is
occurring from increased numbers of buffalo wallows, trails,
tree-rubbing, and so forth, especially in Hayden Valley”
(Meagher et al., In Press).
With harsh winter conditions this year, Meagher has
concluded that the snow density coupled with the declining
winter range in the park “dictates that at best there will likely
be considerable boundary area removal [a euphemism for
killing all the bison outside the park boundaries]. This will be
additive with a likely high mortality within the park, such has
not occurred since 1981-82 when the bison also really began
to use the winter road system. A population crash appears
likely, and the system itself that supports bison may be
collapsing.” Yellowstone National Park supposedly is commit-
ted to maintaining “a truly wild, free-ranging [bison] popula-
tion subject only to the influences of natural regulatory
processes” (1983 Management Plan). And yet, instead of
eliminating the groomed trails, the park has agreed to partici-
pate in an Interim Bison Management Plan which calls for the
capture and slaughter of nearly all bison who approach or
cross the northern and western borders of the park. Such
activities are a far cry from natural regulation.
Clearly the situation for bison would be much ameliorated
by closing the park to snowmobiles or at least ceasing to
groom trails. While such a prohibition may not stop all bison
from exiting the park, this is not the goal of most bison
conservationists anyway. The expected increase in winter kill,
decrease in productivity, and decrease in calf survival would
result in a natural decline in the size of the bison population.
This would reduce Montana stockgrowers’ perception that
bison are a threat to their way of life.
Conclusion
Considering the grievous impacts of snowmobiles on
bison, other creatures and the environment of Yellowstone, the
Park Service must either “mitigate the impacts” or “eliminate
the activity” (Policies, Page 8:1). To date the park has done
neither. On the other hand, when unnatural concentrations of
native species are the result of human activities, the Park
Service is authorized to control the concentrations “if the
activities causing the concentrations cannot be controlled.”
(Id.) But in this case, the activities—trail grooming and
see “Bison” on page 9
7

Regional Reports and Alerts
ARIZONA
Grand Canyon National
Park
With five million visitors per year,
most of whom travel in private
vehicles, the south rim of the Grand
Canyon is awash in a sea of traffic. The
Grand Canyon Master Plan, adopted in
1995, authorizes a reduction in cars on
Grand Canyon rail. J. Craig Thorpe, drawing.
the South Rim. Now, the Park Service
is primed to release an environmental
assessment to determine whether
buses or light rail would be the best
alternative mode of public transporta-
tion. The EA is due out the first week
in March, with a 30-day comment
period.
To receive your very own copy of
the EA and chip in your views, contact
Brad Travers, GCNP, 3100 N. Fort Valley
Rd., Bldg. 12, Flagstaff, AZ 86001;
(520) 774-1239.
For more information on the
alternatives, contact Lara Schmidt at
Grand Canyon Trust, (520) 774-7488.
MAINE
Bill Proposed to Regulate
Roads
The Maine Legislature is consider-
ing a bill that would regulate road-
building and use on the State’s vast
Land Use Regulation Commission
(LURC) lands. There are already 25,000
miles of roads on LURC lands, and
approximately 1000 more miles are
built every year.
The timber industry testified
against regulating roads at a February
18 hearing for the bill, A committee
vote on the bill should take place in
early March.
Contact the Natural Resources
Council of Maine at (207) 622-3101 for
more information.
8 The Road-RIPorter March/April 1997
IDAHO
Study Finds Too Many
Roads for Idaho Elk
As a result of road inventories
conducted by Payette Forest Watch and
Predator Project’s Road Scholar Project,
western Idaho’s Payette National Forest
(PNF) has acknowledged excessive road
densities on at least one elk manage-
ment unit (EMU 8) and agreed to
develop a road closure plan that could
lead to the elimination of more than one
hundred miles of open roads.
Using the Forest Service’s own data,
Payette Forest Watch determined that
elk habitat effectiveness was not being
met on twelve of twenty-three EMUs.
Although the PNF’s open road density
standard sets a limit of 3.1 miles/square
mile to maintain elk habitat effective-
ness, when Payette Forest Watch
researchers compiled the results from
their field inventory, they found an open
road density of 4.2 miles/square mile,
which translates to more than one
hundred miles of illegitimate road.
Although Payette Forest Supervisor
Dave Alexander has promised to
develop a plan by this summer to bring
EMU 8 into Forest Plan compliance,
Payette Forest Watch’s Erik Ryberg
cautions that the Forest has shown a
tendency to falter with similar promises
in the past.
Many studies (Lyon 1983;
Christensen et al. 1993; see vol. 1, n. 5)
show that road densities higher than 2
miles/square mile reduce elk habitat
effectiveness to below 50%. Even if the
Payette drops road densities to meet its
Forest Plan standards, therefore, elk may
remain in serious peril on Payette lands.
Ryberg and Predator Project plan to
conduct further field inventories to
document conditions on other EMUs on
the west side of the Payette.
- What You Can Do
Please write Payette Forest Supervi-
sor Dave Alexander, Payette NF, PO Box
1026, McCall, ID 83638 and insist that
he comply with his Forest Plan by
closing and obliterating roads to meet
open road density requirements in EMU
8. Payette Forest Watch would appreci-
ate copies of any letters you send; you
can also talk to them for more informa-
tion on their study at (208) 634-5275,
PO Box 414, McCall, ID 83638.
ALASKA
Roads to Nowhere
Two different road proposals have
brought Alaskans to court and to the
state Legislature, as small ecotour
companies fight to stop a road from
Portage to Whittier, and an Alaskan
Representative hopes to see a road built
to connect Juneau with Skagway.
If completed, the Whittier Road (see
vol. 1, no. 3) could open remote reaches
of Prince William Sound to more than
1.4 million motorized visitors by the
year 2015. While the road project is
touted as an economic boon by the
Alaska Visitors Association (AVA), the
Alaskan Wilderness Recreation and
Tourism Association (AWRTA) has joined
the Alaska Center for the Environment
(ACE) in a lawsuit to stop the first phase
of the $60 million road project. Both
sides agree the road would lead to a
boom in cruise boat traffic, but where
the AVA sees economic opportunity,
wilderness-based outfitters, AWRTA and
ACE see lost solitude in the area’s fjords
and a degraded envrionment.
Meanwhile, in Juneau, State
Representative Bill Hudson has intro-
duced a resolution asking legislative
support to build a $232 million road
along the Lynn Canal to Skagway. The
two cities currently rely upon ferry
service for commerce and travel.
The state Department of Transporta-
tion and Public Facilities has stated that
they will wait to hear public opinion
before making a decision.
-
What You Can Do
Contact the Alaska Center for the
Environment for more on the Whittier
Road lawsuit: (907) 274-3621.
To help squelch the Juneau-Skagway
road, send your comments to Commis-
sioner Joseph L. Perkins, Alaska Depart-
ment of Trasportation and Public
Facilities, 3132 Channel Dr., Juneau, AK
99801.
le
ee
St
r y
Ga

Flooded Yosemite campground. Linda Wallace, photo.
CALIFORNIA
High Water Could Douse
Yosemite Traffic
“The intent of the National Park Service is to
remove all automobiles from Yosemite Valley
and Mariposa Grove and to redirect
development to the periphery of the park and
beyond.”
Yosemite National Park, 1980
General Management Plan.
Yosemite National Park officials had
the foresight in 1980 to state that they
wanted to remove private vehicles from
the Park. Seventeen years later, the
transportation initiatives have yet to be
implemented.
But, call it fate, New Year’s floods
wreaked havoc in the Yosemite Valley,
damaging roads and buildings. The Park
has been closed ever since, and is likely
to stay closed until at least Memorial
Day for clean-up and reconstruction.
The Park should regard this as a golden
opportunity to implement the 1980
General Management Plan, to remove
park facilities from inside the valley, and
to install a public transportation system.
With more than 4.1 million people
visiting the Park in 1996, the general
management plan presciently noted
that, “The Valley must be freed from the
noise, the smell, the glare, and the
environmental degradation caused by
thousands of vehicles.”
As the Park Service seeks funding
from Congress to rebuild and restore
Yosemite, removing private automobiles
and coming into compliance with the
The Road-RIPorter March/April 1997
1980 General Management Plan should
be its first priority.
What You Can Do - impacts of winter recreational use.
Please write letters to Secretary of
Interior Bruce Babbitt, DOI, 1849 C St.
NW, Washington, D.C. 20240;
Bruce_Babbitt@IOS.DOI.GOV, and ask
him to fund public transportation within
the Park. Keep the following points in
mind for your letters:
1) Public transportation systems
connect the Park with its gateway
communities, which boosts local
economies.
2) Public transit will make bicycle
and other non-motorized visits to the
Yosemite Valley safer and more enjoy-
able, and will improve air quality within
the Park.
3) Funding public transportation
within the Park complies with the 1980
General Management Plan and will
reduce long-term visitor impacts to
Yosemite.
Bison Cont.
snowmobile use—clearly can be
controlled, and the Park Service should
take immediate steps to prohibit these
activities.
Yellowstone National Park should
immediately prohibit snowmobile use
until such a time as the above violations
of law and policy continue. And,
whether or not snowmobiles remain
permitted, all grooming and other
maintenance activities that accomodate
snowmobile use should cease.
The Park Service is exploring
closing Yellowstone to motorized
recreation this winter. In a February 7
letter to Montana Governor Marc
Racicot, the Park Service indicated that
their options to solve the bison problem
“may require closing portions of
groomed roads leading from Yellowstone
National Park to West Yellowstone and
the area between Norris and Mammoth.”
Other alternatives “involve closing
groomed roads to recreational use.”
Unfortunately, the Park Service is
also considering building barricades to
halt bison, again making their commit-
ment to natural regulation questionable.
James Barnes is a founder of the Bison
Advocacy Project in Missoula, MT.
What You Can Do -
To get involved, write Yellowstone
Park Superintendent Mike Finley
(Superintendent’s Office, Yellowstone
National Park, WY 82190), voice your
opposition to motorized winter use in
YNP, and demand an EIS to assess the
For more information contact D.J.
Schubert at (202) 588-5206, or Bison
Advocacy Project, 1519 Cooper St.
Missoula, MT 59802 (406)728-5733,
bison@wildrockies.org.
References
Aune, K.E. 1981. Impacts of Winter
Recreationists on Wildlife in a Portion of
Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming.
M.S. Thesis, MT State Univ., Bozeman.
111 pp.
Bennett, L.E. 1995. A Review of Potential
Effects of Winter Recreation on Wildlife
in Grand Teton and Yellowstone
National Parks: A Bibliographic Data
Base. Final Report. U.S. Department of
the Interior — National Park Service,
University of Wyoming Cooperative Fish
and Wildlife Research Unit.
Daboll, D. 1995. Environmental Impact
Assessment — Snowmobiling Activity at
Yellowstone National Park; With an
Evaluation of Multi-Criteria Decision
Making Methods. Master’s Report MSCE
with Program Concentration in
Environmental Engineering.
Green, G.I., and D.J. Mattson. 1988. Dynamics
of ungulate carcass availability and use
by bears on the northern winter range:
1987 Progress Report. Pages 32-50 in
Yellowstone Grizzly Bear Investigations:
Annual Report of the Interagency Study
Team 1987. U.S.D.I. Natl. Park Service.
see “Bison” on page 10
9
 Outreach
Slide Shows
In early to mid-April, John Dillon will be heading to
Colorado, Utah and Wyoming to present our slide show about
the ecological impacts of roads. The slide show tour is
supported by a grant from the Maki Foundation and will
highlight not only the problems with roads, but how to get
involved in preventing and removing roads. See the back cover
of this Riporter for dates and locations. If you can help with
local publicity or details, or if you want John to come to your
town and we haven’t listed it, get in touch with us ASAP—final
details are in the works.
Workshops
Bethanie held a short, intensive workshop for activists,
focused on road inventory and obliteration at the Headwaters
Western Ancient Forest Activists Conference in Ashland,
Oregon, in February. She also is speaking on a panel at the
Environmental Law Conference in Eugene in March and
presenting a slide show and presentation at Western Washing-
ton University on April 15. A Seattle slide show may follow the
presentation in Bellingham.
We are planning workshops for Burlington, Vermont;
Minneapolis, Minnesota; and Tucson, Arizona. If you are
interested in any of these, please contact our office for more
details.
Glossy PR!
Check out the May 1997 issue of Backpacker Magazine for
a brief report on Wildlands CPR and the T-12 Campaign.
Roads Symposium at SCB Conference
Wildlands CPR is sponsoring a symposium on the
Ecological Impacts of Roads, Sunday, June 8 at the Society for
Conservation Biology’s Annual Meeting in Victoria, British
Columbia, Canada. Panelists for the symposium include Dr.
Chris Frissell, an aquatic ecologist from the University of
Montana; Terry Spreiter, from Redwood National Park’s road
removal program; Dr. Graham Forbes, University of New
Brunswick large carnivore researcher; and Dr. Stephen
Trombulak, Wildlands CPR Advisory Committee member and
professor at Middlebury College in Vermont. Former ROAD-
RIP co-director Marion Hourdequin will serve as moderator for
the symposium. For more information, email Marion at
marionh@selway.umt.edu or call Wildlands CPR.
Restoration Ecology Course Offered
Wild Rockies Field Institute, a non-profit educational
organization, is offering an 18-day field-based course on
Restoration Ecology and Road Obliteration in Greater
Yellowstone. Students will study ecology and backpack for
twelve days in roadless lands west of Yellowstone. For the
remainder of the course, participants will work cooperatively
with the Gallatin National Forest to obliterate a road, install
monitoring devices, and assess the condition of managed lands
including closed and decommissioned roads. Participants can
earn three semester credits from the University of Montana.
Course dates are June 20-July 8, cost is $1050, and enrollment
is limited to eight. Contact WRFI at 406-549-4336, PO Box
7071, Missoula, MT 59807; wrfi@wildrockies.org.
10
Road Obliteration—Volunteers Sought
Wildlands CPR is working to coordinate a road oblitera-
tion effort in Montana’s Elkhorns Wildlife Management Area
with the Helena National Forest and Predator Project.
Subsequent to their recently-completed travel plan
revision, the Helena NF plans to close and obliterate more than
100 miles of roads in the Elkhorns during the next five years.
Wildlands CPR plans to help launch the obliteration efforts by
working with a local Union of heavy equipment operators, and
providing some volunteer labor and expertise to the inaugural
year of road decommissioning.
Agencies commonly complain of budgetary constraints
and lack of humanpower for road closure programs, so this
should be a good demonstration project for both the agency
and activists to demonstrate their commitment to restoring the
landscape to a less-roaded condition.
Work is likely to take place in late May and early June.
Please give Wildlands CPR a holler if you’re interested in
participating in this historic and worthy joint effort. Start
breaking in those workgloves!
Bison Cont.
Greer, T. 1979. Environmental Impact on Snowmobiles: A Review of
the Literature, Masters Project. University of Oregon. 60 pp.
Jarvinen, J.A., and W.D. Schmid. 1971. Snowmobile use and winter
mortality of small mammals. In Chubb, M. (ed.) Proceedings of
the Snowmobile and Off the Road Vehicle Research Symposium.
College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Department of
Park and Recreation Resources, Recreation Resources and
Planning Unit, Tech. Rep. 8, Michigan State University, East
Lansing, MI. 196 pp.
Mattson, D.J., and J. Henry. 1987. Spring grizzly bear use of ungulate
carcasses in the Firehole River drainage: Second Year Progress
Report. Pages 63-72 in Yellowstone Grizzly Bear Investigations:
Annual Report of the Interagency Study Team 1986. U.S.D.I. Natl.
Park Service.
McMillion, S. 1994, “Industry Acknowledges Snowmobile pollution,”
Bozeman Chronicle, Bozeman, MT, January 9, 1994.
Meagher, M. 1993, Winter Recreation-Induced Changes in Bison
Numbers and Distribution in Yellowstone National Park.
Unpublished Report. Yellowstone National Park files. 48 pp.
Meagher et al., In Press; see also Meagher, Unpublished Research Data,
Bison Distribution Flight Report. May 17, 1995.
Neumann, P.W., and H. G. Merriam. 1972. Ecological effects of
snowmobiles. The Canadian Field Naturalist. 86:207-212.
USDI 1983 YNP Natural Resource Management Plan and EA.
USDI 1988 YNP Management Policies.
USDI 1990 YNP Winter Use Plan and Environmental Assessment.
USDI 1995 YNP Natural Resource Management Plan.
USDA/USDI 1995 Interagency Bison Management Plan.
The Road-RIPorter March/April 1997
Video Review
“Torrents of Change,” a new video by the Association of
Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics (AFSEEE),
highlights the impact of flooding on the Central Oregon Coast
and the efforts of the Siuslaw National Forest to reduce these
impacts by removing roads and reducing logging. Though the
Siuslaw is one of the most productive “tree-growing” forests in
the nation, the Siuslaw’s rivers also provide critical salmon
habitat.
After last year’s floods and road blowouts, Siuslaw Forest
Supervisor Jim Furnish began “hydrologically closing” two-
thirds of the roads on the forest. He had already cut timber
production by 90%, and closing the roads was the next logical
step. The roads are not being completely obliterated, but
rather “stored for future use” by leaving the majority of the
road prism intact, adding water bars and cross ditch drains,
and completely removing culverts to reduce the hydrologic
impacts.
The video offers excellent explanations of debris torrents
and a comparison of the floods’ impacts on managed versus
unmanaged lands. It also includes great footage of culvert
excavation in progress. But the video does not explain the
difference between hydrologic closure and complete oblitera-
tion. The Siuslaw is the only Forest in the country removing a
majority of its roads.
“Torrents of Change” offers a basic introduction to the
relationship between roads, clearcuts and flooding. The
presentation is clear, graphic, and appropriate to a wide
audience, though the video fails to recommend or fully explain
the complexities of road removal. It is available from AFSEEE
(PO Box 11615, Eugene. OR 97440; (541) 484-2692) for
$15.00, and even cheaper if you show the video to others.
Elizabeth O’Leary
Join Wildlands CPR Today!
____$30 Standard Name:__________________________________________________
____$15 Low Income
____$50 Friend
____$200 Supporter Organization:____________________________________________
____$500 Sponsor
____Other: $____________ Address:________________________________________________
____$15 ($25 non-members)
Handbook (includes all 4 guides)
City/State/Zip:___________________________________________
____$4/Guide ($7 non-members)
- circle your choices BLM, ORV, NF, NP Phone/Fax/e-mail:________________________________________
____Total enclosed $______________ ________________________________________________________
The Road-RIPorter March/April 1997
Join Wildlands CPR Today!
Membership benefits both you and Wildlands CPR. You
lend your support to our efforts, giving us more leverage in sub-
mitting comments, filing lawsuits, and creating pressure to pre-
vent and close roads on public lands. In addition, your financial
support helps us to continue providing information and re-
sources to activists throughout North America.
As a Wildlands CPR member, you'll have better access to
these resources, because you’ll receive:
❇ Our bimonthly newsletter, The Road-RIPorter.
❇ 10 free bibliography searches per year.
❇ National support for your campaign through our newsletter
and alerts.
❇ Access to activist tools and public education materials.
❇ Connections with groups working on similar issues, and net-
works with experienced road-fighting activists, lawyers and
scientists.
❇ Discounts on Wildlands CPR publications.
Wildlands CPR Publications:
Road-Ripper's Handbook ($15.00, $25 non-members)) —A
comprehensive activist manual that includes the four Guides
listed below, plus The Ecological Effects of Roads, Gather-
ing Information with the Freedom of Information Act, and
more!
Road-Ripper's Guide to the National Forests ($4, $7 non-mem-
bers) —By Keith Hammer. How-to procedures for getting
roads closed and revegetated, descriptions of environmen-
tal laws, road density standards & Forest Service road poli-
cies.
Road-Ripper's Guide to the National Parks ($4, $7 non-mem-
bers) —By David Bahr & Aron Yarmo. Provides background
on the National Park System and its use of roads, and out-
lines how activists can get involved in NPS planning.
Road-Ripper's Guide to Off-Road Vehicles ($4, $7 non-mem-
bers) —By Dan Wright. A comprehensive guide to reducing
the use and abuse of ORVs on public lands. Includes an ex-
tensive bibliography.
Road-Ripper's Guide to the BLM ($4, $7 non-members) —By
Dan Stotter. Provides an overview of road-related land and
resource laws, and detailed discussions for participating in
BLM decision-making processes.
11
 Mark Alan Wilson
The Toad Hits the Road: Wildlands CPR Slide Show
Grand Junction, CO Mesa State College, 7 pm Sunday, April 6th
Montrose, CO Hillcrest Church, 7 pm Monday, April 7th
Crested Butte, CO The Alpineer, 7 pm Tuesday, April 8th
Aspen, CO Aspen Center for Environ. Studies, 7 pm Thursday, April 10th
Boulder, CO CU campus, 5 pm Monday, April 14th
Denver, CO Hadley Branch Library, 7:30 pm Tuesday, April 15th
Fort Collins, CO Tentative Wednesday, April 16th
Laramie, WY Tentative Thursday, April 17th
Lander, WY Fremont County Library, 7 pm Friday, April 18th

Call Wildlands CPR at (406) 543-9551 for more information—dates and times may change

BULK RATE
US POSTAGE
PAID
MISSOULA, MT 59801
PERMIT NO. 569

Wildlands Center for Preventing Roads

P.O. Box 7516
Missoula, MT 59807

“...beyond the asphalt belting of the

superhighways...there is another world
waiting for you... Go there. Be there.
Walk gently and quietly within it.”
— Edward Abbey

12 The Road-RIPorter March/April 1997