Max Baucus: “I would like to mention another anti- environment rider in the Interior appropriations bill. I have already discussed…”

“I would like to mention another anti- environment rider in the Interior appropriations bill. I have already discussed two of them. One is Glacier Bay and the other is Izembek. This will be the third. Mr. President, this amendment deletes the rider that limits the Forest Service's ability to close roads on National Forests that threaten public safety or the environment. Let me explain. The Forest Service has constructed over 370,000 miles of roads on National Forests across America--370,000 miles of roads. These roads, the ones that Forest Service has constructed, are called authorized roads; another name given to them is systems roads. Most of these are single-lane roads. They are relatively low quality, often built to harvest timber. They are just basic roads built to meet basic needs. Many of these roads, though, have outlived their intended purpose. They are no longer needed. That is, they are built essentially to harvest timber, a lot of them, or built for a specific purpose and that purpose is no longer in use. So the roads therefore are no longer needed. About 40 percent of the 370,000 miles of authorized roads are maintained to public safety and environmental standards. The remaining 60 percent are in poor condition and in many cases are a threat--a real threat--to the public safety or a threat to water quality or often a threat to wildlife habitat.…”