Eldorado National Forest

Projects & Plans

Roads Analysis Project

Introduction:

On January 12, 2001, the Forest Service issued the final National Forest System Road Management Rule concerning the management, use, and maintenance of the National Forest Transportation System. It is intended to help ensure that additions to the National Forest System road network are essential for resource management and use; that construction, reconstruction, and maintenance of roads minimize adverse environmental impacts; and that unneeded roads are decommissioned and restoration of ecological processes are initiated.

The Roads Analysis report contains the information and analysis procedure used by the Eldorado National Forest to provide information to develop a road system that is safe and responsive to public needs and desires, is affordable and efficiently managed, has minimal negative ecological effects on the land, and is in balance with available funding for needed management actions.

The Roads Analysis occurs at three scales in order to provide adequate information for management of the total transportation system. These scales are:

1. Forest-wide: to evaluate the main road network that links all areas of the Forest;
2. Landscape: to evaluate the road network within a watershed or landscape; and
3. Project: to evaluate project proposals and alternatives for managing individual roads, areas, or segments.

The Forest-Wide Roads Analysis addresses the road system of arterial and collector roads to provide a context for road management in the broader framework to manage all Forest resources. Arterials and collectors are the roads that provide primary access to large portions of the national forest, and connect the remainder of the transportation system. The remaining transportation system divides logically by the fifth-field watersheds, including the local road system. Local, non-system, and user-created roads are therefore addressed in conjunction with the landscape analyses at the 5th field watershed and then in individual project-scale analyses.

The product of this Forest level analysis is a report for decision-makers and the public that documents the information and analyses used to identify opportunities and set priorities for future national forest road systems.

Key Findings :

The existing arterial and collector road system provides the necessary access for current and anticipated future needs.

• No new construction or decommissioning of the existing Arterial and Collector transportation system appears to be necessary.
• The existing Arterial and Collector road system provides social and economic benefits for recreation, vegetation management, access to public utilities, and access to special use permit sites.

Road maintenance funding is not adequate to maintain and sign roads to standard.

• Even with the focus on potential minimum road system, our current budgets do not cover road maintenance costs. The Eldorado National Forest currently receives approximately $650,000 per year for all road maintenance. To maintain the level 3, 4, and 5 road system to standard would cost approximately $1.5 million.
• Maintenance funding priorities are suggested by Categories; Category 1 roads are functioning efficiently and require continued maintenance to remain in that category. Category 2 roads are not at their most efficient level, and will require increased maintenance to attain their designated function. Category 3 roads will require capital improvement funding to attain their designated function. The Forest has a total of 191.33 miles of Arterial and Collector road in Category 1; 215.46 miles in Category 2; and 71.71 miles in Category 3.
• The landscape and project level roads analysis process could result in continued reductions of the Forest road maintenance obligations through proper closure or decommissioning of maintenance level 1 and 2 roads.
• Arterial and collector roads are not being maintained to the standards specified in the 1989 Forest Plan. If this trend continues, the road system will continue to degrade, which will compromise future access on existing roads.

Traffic levels that exceed the current road design, types of use and lack of maintenance on individual roads are a cause for safety concerns. Emergency access and egress may not be adequate in some areas.

• Single lane roads into areas where heavy recreation use during seasons of high fire risk may be inadequate for emergency equipment access and evacuation of recreation users.
• Clearing for sight distance and safety is not occurring as often as needed.
• Off Highway Vehicles (OHVs) and highway vehicles are used on some of the same roads and occasionally at the same time. Safe use has been a problem when added to limited road maintenance funding to increase sight distance (e.g., reconstruction or roadside clearing). This issue is difficult to address due to the diversity of users.

There are potential environmental consequences from the road system that need to be prioritized and evaluated for future analyses at a landscape level scale.

• This Forest-wide roads analysis process identified some individual roads that represented a potential for beneficial and detrimental effects on resources, the resource assessment tables in Chapter 4 identify the roads most at risk.

High road densities in some areas of the Forest may be causing impacts to resources and users.

• By itself, the level 3, 4, and 5 arterial and collector road system is not a road density concern.
• Areas of high road density occur where there is an additive effect from level 1 and 2 roads, many unclassified roads, and numerous user-created routes. Because the effects are generated from these additional roads, the effects are more appropriately analyzed at the Landscape and project scales.

Shared maintenance is occurring but could be improved on key access roads.

• This issue needs to be addressed with the Boards of Supervisors and Transportation Planners of El Dorado, Placer, Amador, and Alpine Counties.
• The Forest should continue to pursue formal road maintenance agreements with the counties interested in sharing to use taxpayer funds more efficiently.

Project Documents:

Note: The maps and document are Adobe Acrobat .pdf files. Using this method you will be able to zoom in and out and to pan around the individual maps. All data are dated November 2002.

The complete document and accompanying maps are larger than is practical for web access. It is available in CD format from the Eldorado National Forest by contacting Sue Rodman at the contact point listed in the side bar.