Effects of Roads on Private Inholdings

Little science-based information is available on the relations between roads and private inholdings. Therefore, the following propositions are offered as hypotheses based on judgment, rather than scientific findings.

• The Forest Service is required by law to permit access to private inholdings.
• The Forest Service can require private inholding owners or lessees to comply with official regulations and standards that apply to building roads on or through National Forest land. The regulations and standards are documented in writing as official policy, but they are subject to interpretation and application in specific cases by agency line officers.
• The Chief of the Forest Service may consult appropriate National Forest officers about the sources of scientific documentation used in practice and in official regulations, standards, and procedures applicable to roads on or through National Forest lands that provide access to private property.
• In general, the scientific documentation of ecological and human effects of roads on or through National Forest land provided elsewhere in this synthesis applies to roads that provide access to private inholdings.
• No scientific basis exists for stating propositions about whether the Forest Service subsidizes access to private inholdings or the effect, if any, of Forest Service roads on the various values of private inholdings.
• The Chief needs inventory information about the type, number, acreage, location, use, value, and so on of private inholdings on National Forest land and the extent to which private inholders use National Forest roads for access. At present, no systematic inventory procedure or documentation can provide comprehensive and valid information of that type.

These propositions do not necessarily apply to inholdings dedicated to mineral and energy exploration or extraction, which are covered in Energy and Mineral Resources.