Effects of Roads on Grazing and Rangeland Management

According to the 1995 draft RPA program, about 46.2 million acres of National Forest land are considered suitable for livestock grazing. Producing livestock can be an important part of local economies, and livestock grazing is deeply rooted in the culture of the American West. Grazing was first authorized on National Forest land by the Organic Administration Act of 1897 and confirmed by many later appropriations acts (USDA Forest Service 1989). The Public Rangelands Improvement Act of 1978 reinforced a national policy that public rangelands were to be "managed...so that they become as productive as feasible for all rangeland values."

Essentially no scientific information exists that analyzes the ecological, administrative, or economic effects of roads on administering the Forest Service range-management program. Preliminary unpublished analyses from the interior Columbia River Basin ecosystem management project addressed the road issue from the perspective of ecological responses to the presence or absence of roads. The analyses found correlations between changes in vegetation composition, riparian functioning, and fire regimes and the presence of forest roads. They could not conclude any cause-and-effect relations from these correlations, however. The program also found higher road densities to be associated with diminished ecological integrity, including those based on range criteria.

To assess the importance of National Forest roads for administering the grazing program, as well as their economic value to permittees, an ad hoc interdisciplinary team was formed to provide a nominal assessment. However, the results of the interdisciplinary-team assessment are heavily weighted towards the Rocky Mountain Region (Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota, and eastern Wyoming) and thus may not represent a national perspective. The findings below reflect the input of the team:

• Roads on national forest lands have both positive and negative effects on rangelands and the administration of the grazing program. Roads have mostly replaced driveways as a means for transporting sheep and cattle to and from mountain allotments. As a result, these driveways have dramatically improved in rangeland health. Until the 1970s, livestock driveways were considered "sacrifice areas" in the range-management discipline (Stoddart and Smith 1955). Thus, national forest roads can promote ecosystem management objectives along alternative transportation corridors, which they replace.
• Roads in national forests are essential for administering the grazing program, allowing timely access to allotments. Compliance enforcement was mentioned in particular as an activity greatly benefiting from forest roads. The principal reasons cited were that agency downsizing has resulted in high workloads for remaining range conservationists, which does not allow them sufficient time to carry out their duties; guard stations have been closed; Forest Service personnel no longer have the option of spending nights in the field in some places; and many allotment plans incorporate Forest Service roads into their approved grazing system or as drive-ways to and from the allotment; for example, in the Black Hills, all driveways are along roads.
• Roads can reduce operating costs by providing motorized access to allotments. The team estimated that, if all National Forest roads were closed, permittee costs would increase by three to five times. These costs would accrue from increased riding time, cost of horses and riders, and added equipment costs (such as horse trailers). The grazing program derives benefit from only part of the road system, however, and if arterial and collector roads remained open, the expected cost increases would be less, ranging from none to a twofold increase.
• Roads can heighten conflicts among users of national forests, such as cattlemen and recreationists, although some evidence shows that concerns about road conditions actually can cause some forest visitors to slightly, but measurably, shift their focus of attention from grazing encounters to roads (Mitchell and others 1996).