Effects of Roads on Forest Research, Inventory, and Monitoring

Among the benefits that roads provide is access for research, timber and non-timber forest inventories, and monitoring. Although the economic scale of these tasks is low compared to some other activities, the effects of access on inventory and monitoring are not trivial, and the need for these activities is obvious.

In the region, contracting cost for inventories run about $600 per plot when roads allow access to within 0.25 mile of the plot. In the same region, cost rises to $1,300 per plot in roadless areas open only to foot access. In the Pacific Northwest, survey costs were $1,460 per wilderness plot and $1,174 per nonwilderness plot. In Alaska, roadless areas are vast, but helicopter access is permitted. The average cost per plot for roadless areas in interior Alaska has averaged $4,000 per plot for 170 plots.