Roads and the Environment.

ROADS; ENVIRONMENTAL protection; LANDSCAPES; FOREST reserves; LAND management

The article discusses the effects of roads on the environment and society in the United States. Environmental effects of roads have become highly controversial because of the value society places on unroaded wildlands and because of wilderness conflicts with resource extraction. The inventories of the roads differ widely, in both content and status. Roads create large amounts of interface within the landscapes traversed. Roads provide motorized access creating a broad spectrum of options for management but forecloses other options such as nonmotorized recreation. Roads can act as barriers to migration, lead to water temperature changes and alter streamflow regimes. The road networks on national forest lands has both positive and negative effects on most Forest Service land management programs.