Ashley National Forest

Undeveloped Area Inventory Process

Background

As part of its Forest Plan revision process, the Ashley National Forest is reviewing and updating its map of unroaded and undeveloped land (sometimes referred to as the roadless area inventory). The Forest is currently using a similar inventory prepared in 1999-2000 to guide management decisions. However, we are required to prepare a new inventory to support certain decisions that will be made in the Forest Plan revision process. Those decisions are:

1. To evaluate and consider undeveloped areas for recommendation as potential wilderness areas. This evaluation is required by the regulations implementing the National Forest Management Act.
2. To identify areas providing nonmotorized recreation, ecological and other values associated with unroaded and undeveloped landscapes, and consider those values when developing management goals and strategies for the revised Forest Plan.

The next step in this process will be to evaluate all the undeveloped lands to determine whether or not they possess wilderness characteristics. There will be opportunities for the public to participate in the evaluation process - check back for more information in mid-July.

How You Can Help

• Review A Protocol for Identifying and Evaluating Areas for Potential Wilderness and the 2004 Ashley Roadless Inventory slide presentation (PowerPoint 2,224 KB or PDF File 884 KB) so you understand the process we used to identify undeveloped areas.

• Look at the maps below to see our current undeveloped areas inventory.

  The zip files below contain shape files of classified roads and current draft undeveloped areas inventory. They can be downloaded and used in ArcView or ArcGIS.

  • Forest-wide Undeveloped Areas (926 KB)
  • Classified Roads Updated April 2005 (1,816 KB)

  The images below are in a PDF format. Please be patient as you open these files (sizes range from 20 to 600 KB).

  Current Undeveloped Lands Inventory:

  • Table Listing Undeveloped Areas and Acreage
  • Daggett and Summit Counties
  • Duchesne and Wasatch Counties (North End)
  • Duchesne, Wasatch, and Utah Counties (South End)
  • Uintah County

  To see what changed from initial to final inventory click on the following maps:

  • Daggett County
  • Duchesne and Wasatch Counties (North End)
  • Duchesne, Wasatch, and Utah Counties (South End)
  • Uintah County

• Be thinking about input you'd like to provide later, when we ask for comments on how these areas should be managed.
• Check back in July to see how you can be involved in the evaluation process.

PDF files require the Acrobat Reader program. You can download the Acrobat Reader free of charge. Please read our disclaimers.

US Forest Service - Ashley National Forest
Last Modified: Wednesday, 06 June 2007 at 11:51:19 EDT