Neglected forest roads championed
Six members of Washington's congressional delegation demanded Friday that the Bush administration provide millions more in federal funding to repair Washington's deteriorating national forest roads and protect the state's rivers and fish runs.
The demand was made in a letter to U.S. Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns signed by U.S. Sens. Maria Cantwell and Patty Murray and Reps. Brian Baird, Norm Dicks, Rick Larsen and Jay Inslee, all Democrats.
"We believe that the federal government must promptly take the actions necessary to reduce the harmful impacts of deteriorating Forest Service roads," the lawmakers wrote.
"In Washington, neglected Forest Service roads are jeopardizing state and federal efforts to restore salmon runs in Puget Sound and elsewhere. Road culverts block fish passage on hundreds of streams. ? Impassable roads also diminish access to trail heads and outstanding recreational opportunities that millions of Americans seek in our national forests."
The lawmakers noted that severe storms last November resulted in more than $30 million in damage to the state's forest roads and that the state faces a backlog of $300 million to maintain existing roads, replace culverts and decommission old roads that can bleed into streams.
The backlog is growing by $8 million annually, they said. Yet the Forest Service is spending just $3 million annually on road maintenance in Washington, and the administration has proposed a 31 percent cut in the Forest Service's road maintenance budget and a 55 percent cut in its budget for road decommissioning in 2008.
"At the same time, the budget proposes a 184 percent increase in funding for timber sales in the Pacific Northwest," the letter says. It calls the agency's budget priorities "a serious misallocation of resources."
The Gifford Pinchot National Forest alone faces an estimated $40 million road maintenance backlog, yet forest officials say their annual road maintenance budget is only about $500,000.
Gifford Pinchot officials want to close 25 miles of forest roads but lack the necessary funding to remove old culverts, cut water bars to control water runoff and take other steps to properly decommission the old logging roads.
The Forest Service signed an agreement with Washington environmental regulators in 2001 saying it would close or stabilize thousands of miles of forest roads in the state by 2016 to reduce erosion and improve water quality. But officials say lack of funding means they are falling behind in meeting that deadline.
Nationally, former Forest Service Chief Mike Dombeck estimated in 2000 that the national forest system faced an $8.4 billion backlog of work to decommission or restore substandard roads.
Regional Forest Service spokesman Glen Sachet said he wasn't familiar with the budget figures, but added, "We do have a sizeable deferred maintenance list. We continually ask for money because it is deferred maintenance and we need to find a way to address it."
Dicks, a Tacoma Democrat who chairs the subcommittee that deals with the Forest Service budget, added money to the agency's 2008 appropriation, including $65 million dedicated to restoring roads and trails nationwide.
It's a start in restoring an agency budget that has been slashed over the past six years, said Dicks' spokesman George Behan: "The Forest Service budget has been diminished by 35 percent in the past six years when adjusted for inflation. Obviously, it will be several steps coming back."
