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People, communities nationwide depend on forest transportation infrastructure

February 7, 2020

Portrait phot: Chris French
Deputy Chief Chris French, National Forest System

Yesterday, I testified before the House Transportation and Infrastructure, Highways and Transit Subcommittee about the re-authorization of the Federal Lands Transportation Program. I hear about the various challenges people have in accessing public lands—some of which are due to our backlog of deferred maintenance. One thing is clear: our transportation infrastructure is very important to many people and communities across the country.

I was proud to testify about the importance of this program, on behalf of our many employees and partners who want to get the work done and serve people. I encourage you to read my opening remarks below for more information, and to watch a recording of the hearing. (My remarks begin at the 33:50 mark.)

“Today, I want to share with you the importance of the Forest Service road network, the largest network of any federal land management agency. And I want to be clear: My testimony is not about serving the Forest Service, it’s about people. It’s about rural America, it’s about a way of life where our transportation system is the transportation fabric of the communities that we’re a part of. Places like Red River, Idaho; Story, Arkansas; or Douglas County, Oregon.

With that, I want you to remember three main things today. With over 370,000 miles of road, the Forest Service manages the largest transportation system of all the federal land management agencies. The Forest Service has over $5 billion in infrastructure repairs that we have not been able to fund, including $3.6 billion in deferred maintenance just for roads, bridges and trails. Maintaining our roads is critical for our emergency response, fire protection, connecting rural communities, supporting commerce in rural economies and providing access to federal lands.

For some context, the Forest Service manages over 193 million acres across 44 states, or about eight percent of the land area of the United States. But in some counties, the National Forest System lands may represent more than 90 percent of the land base and the majority of that county’s transportation infrastructure. This includes more than 65,000 miles of passenger vehicle roads and over 6,000 road bridges. This network provides the roads that people depend on to get to schools, stores, hospitals, and their own homes. They are critical to their life.

For example, in central Pennsylvania, a single Forest Service bridge is the only connector to a small subdivision of around 25 homes. That bridge is in such disrepair that the community fire trucks and emergency services cannot serve their homes presently. Our system is critical to our communities and our multiple use mission. It provides access to more than 300 million anglers, hunters and recreationists. These visitors contribute more than $11 billion to the U.S. economy and sustain nearly 150,000 jobs. Direct timber, grazing and mining activities on national forests provide an additional almost 120,000 jobs and $13 billion to rural economies.

Our roads support and connect people, to include thousands of sacred sites, 6,500 grazing permits, and 30,000 recreation special use permits. They’re critical to accessing 122 ski areas, 8,000 outfitter and guides, 400 resorts and marinas, 6,700 federal leases for minerals and 300,000 permits to individuals to collect firewood, food collection or even Christmas trees.

It’s also critical for subsistence hunting in states like Alaska, and more than 1,500 communication sites that provide rural broadband and emergency response services to communities that we’re a part of. And often, like counties, our roads are the gateways to national parks and monuments across the country.

But perhaps most critically, this road network provides fire protection to communities. Firefighters and emergency responders use our roads to protect communities, evacuate families at risk and rescue individuals from danger. This is the number one issue I hear about from our county commissioners and residents—the need to maintain our road system to reduce the risk of fire, to attack fires early and to main access that protects their way of life.

When the Forest Service is forced to close unsafe roads, it places limitations on our ability to access fires early, before they turn into catastrophic events. Unfortunately, repairs and maintenance have been postponed year after year, resulting in deferred maintenance.

This leads to more and more road closures across our systems, because frankly, we just can’t keep up. Our communities see this as failing them, or worse, as a strike to their liberty and way of life. To attain safe, sustainable access for the American public, our agency would require an additional $445 million per year over the next 10 years. We greatly appreciate the partnership with the Federal Highway Administration that Congress authorized most recently through the FAST (Fixing America’s Surface Transportation) Act.

Through the Federal Lands Transportation Program, the Forest Service currently receives approximately $19 million in annual funding. In fiscal year 2020, that helped us rehabilitate 546 miles of roads and 29 bridges. That represents about 8% of our annual funds and about 3% of our estimated annual need.”

Visit the House Transportation Committee hearings page to read testimony from the entire witness list, which includes representatives from tribes, industry and the Department of the Interior.

National Forest System Deputy Chief Chris French’s testimony begins at the 33:50 mark. He testified before the House Transportation and Infrastructure, Highways and Transit Subcommittee about the re-authorization of the Federal Lands Transportation Program on Feb. 6, 2020.

https://www.fs.usda.gov/inside-fs/leadership/people-communities-nationwide-depend-forest-transportation-infrastructure