Conservation Northwest protects and connects old-growth forests and other wild areas from the Washington Coast to the British Columbia Rockies, vital to a healthy future for us, our children, and wildlife. Since 1989, Conservation Northwest has worke
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Conservation Northwest updates Inside Conservation Northwest View from the Director Thanks for traveling with us Here at Conservation Northwest, you help us protect and connect wild and natural habitats. Most people know what it means to protect a natural area by, for instance, establishing a park or other designation that prohibits harmful activity. We also aim to interconnect these wild areas with pathways or corridors of habitat. This allows sensitive wildlife to move between them and therefore avoid isolation on metaphorical mountaintops. Providing these habitat connections helps link wildlands and special habitats. Roads do the opposite, as each road connects ultimately to civilization. Roads can cause erosion and roadkill, divide wildlife populations, provide a portal for poachers or predators to disrupt a refuge, and invite disturbance of nature's sublime quiet. I don't mean to disparage all roads. Heck, some of my best friends are roads, and I rely on them for camping and hunting as well as for work. But when roads are too many or in the wrong place, they are the undoing of wildness. That said, roads (and established trails) are the right place for motorized recreation to occur. A quad ridden on road has a tiny fraction of the impact it would have tearing across the backcountry, blazing its own trail. I spent a lot of time in Olympia this winter with colleagues from the hunting and motor recreation community promoting a bill that would have opened up many state roads to use by off-road vehicles. The counter argument is that ORVs are designed for off-road use, and that's where there riders prefer to go. By granting them use of more road mileage, we exponentially increase their ability for illegal and harmful backcountry use. But the bill we sought, and will continue to promote in the Washington State Legislature, would require changes including visible license plates to greatly increase enforcement and, I believe, reduce illegal riding. Conservation Northwest is actively working with authorities to identify roads that are needed for management and enjoyment—including motorized recreation—of our public lands, as well as those that taxpayers and nature can no longer afford. There are of course special places where we will oppose any new roads or trails. The right balance of protecting wildlife and access is attainable if we have the will to make it happen. In this issue of Conservation Northwest Quarterly, we explore the role of roads— both good and bad—what roads mean to wildlife and habitat in our region, and how we might find better ways to balance freedom with restraint. Enjoy the ride, and thanks for traveling with us! Mitch Friedman, as featured on the cover of Pacific Northwest Magazine. Read more about the evolution of Mitch online at conservationnw.org Photo by Benjamin Benschneider/The Seattle Times "When roads are too many or in the wrong place, they are the undoing of wildness. The right balance of protecting wildlife and access is attainable if we have the will to make it happen." Still motivated for wildlife The statistics were astounding, even in 1997, as featured in the "Roads to Ruin" issue of Conservation Northwest's newsletter. They still stagger the mind. The US Forest Service alone oversees a national road network more than eight times larger than the entire federal highway and interstate system. That's a lot of roads for wildlife to have to negotiate, and it has motivated us to protect roadless areas and connect larger wild areas. In the last few years, we've also decommissioned and restored some roads to help wildlife, fish, and ecosystems remain healthy into the future.