GP: Thanks for the response. I always enjoy debating with you becasue you think before talking.

Here are a few more facts about roadless areas in Idaho:

The Value of Roadless Areas to Idaho’s Fishing and Hunting


Idaho Facts:
Idaho contains 52,961,000 total acres.
Seven percent, or 4,005,653 acres, of Idaho is protected in congressionally mandated wilderness.
9 million acres of inventoried roadless areas remain in the National Forests.
Approximately 4 million acres of roadless BLM lands remain.
32 percent of Idaho’s total land base is roadless.


Trout and Salmon
The single greatest factor in the decline of salmon and steelhead populations in Idaho are the hydro-dams on the lower Snake River. Roadless areas provide crucially important spawning and rearing habitat that can help to “buy time” while the longer term problems associated with dams are resolved.

The table below shows historic habitat and contemporary abundance of selected salmonids, and the extent to which they rely on roadless lands for their survival.


Species Percentage of lost historic habitat Current distribution in roadless areas
Bull Trout 46 percent of historic range 68 percent of current habitat is in roadless areas
Chinook salmon 65 percent of historic range 74 percent of current habitat is in roadless areas
Redband trout 70 percent of historic range 48 percent of current habitat is in roadless areas
Steelhead 61 percent of historic range 74 percent of current habitat is in roadless areas
Westslope cutthroat trout 16 percent of historic range 58 percent of current habitat is in roadless areas

Note: The percentage of current distribution in roadless areas is based on sub-watersheds that are at least 40 percent roadless.


Deer Harvest
51 percent of the land in units yielding more than 70 percent bucks is roadless.
72 percent of the land in units yielding more than 40 percent 4+ pt. bucks is roadless.
94 percent of the land in units yielding both more than 70 percent bucks and more than 40 percent 4+ point bucks is roadless.

Elk Harvest
88 percent of the land in units yielding more than 90 percent branch bulls is roadless.

Note: Units in which less than 50 bull elk were harvested over a two year period were excluded. Also excluded were units where only controlled hunts were allowed.


Deer and Elk Seasons
98 percent of the land in units with November deer seasons is roadless
97 percent of the land in units with September or November elk seasons is roadless.

Bighorn Sheep and Mountain Goat Hunting
67 percent of the land in units allowing sheep and goat hunting is roadless.

303d Sediment-Impaired Streams
94 percent of 303d sediment-impaired streams are located outside roadless areas.

Status of Idaho’s Inventoried Roadless Areas
Forest Service inventoried roadless areas (IRAs) are divided into the following three categories:

1B – IRAs allocated to a forest plan prescription that does not allow road construction and reconstruction.

1B-1 – IRAs allocated to a prescription that does not allow road construction and reconstruction, recommended in the forest plan as wilderness.

1C – IRAs allocated to a prescription that allows road construction and reconstruction. 61 percent of Idaho’s roadless areas fall into this category.

In the absence of lasting roadless protection, Forest Service roadless areas are managed by individual forest plans. Local forest supervisors and district rangers face the difficult task of balancing the exceptional ecological values of roadless areas against local development demands. Without lasting protection, and despite the best efforts of local managers, Idaho’s roadless areas may face the death of a thousand cuts by forest plans that cumulatively erode Idaho’s roadless base. Presently the maintenance and reconstruction backlog on Idaho’s national forest roads exceeds a billion dollars annually.