Roadless areas and clean water

Abstract

C lean water, like biodiversity, is most closely linked to undisturbed natural ecosystems. When undisturbed watersheds in roadless and protected areas (e.g., national parks, state parks, wilderness areas, national monuments) are fragmented by roads, logging, and intensive recreation development, both water quality and biodiversity decline as hydrological integrity is lost (USFS 1972, 1979, 2001; Alexander and Gorte 2008; Anderson 2008). In the United States, inventoried roadless areas (IRAs) are lands without roads exceeding 2,000 ha (5,000 ac) that have been inventoried by the USDA Forest Service. IRAs collectively amount to approximately one third of the 77 million ha (193 million ac) of the 155 national forests but are disproportionately concentrated in western states (figure 1) (Trout Unlimited 2004; Anderson 2008). The roaded, intensively managed landscapes of the other national forest lands have been closely correlated with heavily sediment-laden streams and dramatic changes in flow regimes (Espinosa et al. 1997; Trombulak and Frissell 2000; CBD et al. 2001; Coffin 2007; Frissell and Carnefix 2007). While the biodiversity benefits of IRAs are well documented (DeVelice and Martin 2001; Strittholt and DellaSala 2001; Loucks et al. 2003; Strittholt et al. 2004; Gelbardi and Harrison 2005), little has been made of the importance of IRA…