Roadless Area Conservation Act of 2019
This bill bars the Department of Agriculture from allowing the construction of roads, the reconstruction of roads, or logging in an inventoried roadless area where those activities are prohibited by the Roadless Rule (i.e., certain federal regulations relating to roadless area management).
[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 1311 Introduced in Senate (IS)]
<DOC>
116th CONGRESS
1st Session
S. 1311
To provide lasting protection for inventoried roadless areas within the
National Forest System.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
May 2, 2019
Ms. Cantwell (for herself, Mr. Udall, Mr. Wyden, Mr. Blumenthal, Mr.
Durbin, Mrs. Murray, Mr. Booker, Ms. Harris, Mr. Merkley, Ms. Warren,
Mr. Menendez, Mr. Heinrich, Ms. Smith, Mr. Sanders, Ms. Hirono, Mr.
Cardin, Mr. Markey, Mr. Reed, and Mr. Whitehouse) introduced the
following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on
Energy and Natural Resources
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To provide lasting protection for inventoried roadless areas within the
National Forest System.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Roadless Area Conservation Act of
2019''.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND PURPOSE.
(a) In General.--Congress finds that--
(1) there is a compelling need to establish national
protection for inventoried roadless areas of the National
Forest System in order to protect the unique social and
ecological values of those irreplaceable resources;
(2) roadless areas protect healthy watersheds and the
numerous benefits of healthy watersheds, which include--
(A) providing the setting for many forms of outdoor
recreation;
(B) ensuring a supply of clean water for domestic,
agricultural, and industrial uses;
(C) providing drinking water to tens of millions of
citizens of the United States; and
(D) helping maintain abundant and healthy fish and
wildlife populations and habitats;
(3) maintaining roadless areas in a relatively undisturbed
condition--
(A) saves downstream communities millions of
dollars in water filtration costs; and
(B) is crucial to preserve the flow of affordable,
clean water to a growing population;
(4) the protection of roadless areas can maintain
biological strongholds and refuges for many imperiled species
by halting the ongoing fragmentation of the landscape into
smaller and smaller parcels of land divided by road corridors;
(5) roadless areas conserve native biodiversity by serving
as a bulwark against the spread of nonnative invasive species;
(6) roadless areas provide important backcountry fish and
game habitat, creating opportunities for hunting and commercial
and sport fishing;
(7) roadless areas provide unparalleled opportunities for
outdoor recreation, including hiking, camping, picnicking,
wildlife viewing, hunting, fishing, cross-country skiing,
canoeing, mountain-biking, and similar activities;
(8) while roadless areas may have many wilderness-like
attributes, unlike wilderness areas, the use of mechanized
means of travel is allowed in many roadless areas;
(9) roadless areas contain many sites sacred to Native
Americans, Alaska Natives, and other groups that use roadless
areas for spiritual and religious practices and access,
including customary and traditional uses and activities;
(10) from the inception of Federal land management, the
mission of the Forest Service has been to manage the National
Forest System for multiple uses, including resource
utilization, conservation, and other uses;
(11) consistent with the multiple-use mission described in
paragraph (10), this Act--
(A) ensures the continued protection of social and
ecological values, while allowing for many multiple
uses of inventoried roadless areas; and
(B) does not impose any new limitations on--
(i) inventoried roadless areas; or
(ii) the use of, or access to, National
Forest System, State, or private land outside
inventoried roadless areas;
(12) enacting a law for the protection of inventoried
roadless areas--
(A) provides additional reliability to areas with
recreation-based economies that depend on public land
without roads for jobs, revenue, and consumer spending;
and
(B) encourages forest managers to continue giving
priority to conducting fuel reduction treatments in the
areas in which the treatments will have the most
impact;
(13) wildfires are almost twice as likely to occur in
roaded areas as in roadless areas, because roadless areas are
generally located further away from communities and are harder
to access;
(14) the Forest Service has an enormous backlog of
maintenance needs for the existing 371,581-mile road system of
the Forest Service that will cost $3,200,000,000 to eliminate;
and
(15) continued protection of roadless areas will continue
to allow for the development of hydropower projects.
(b) Purpose.--The purpose of this Act is to provide, within the
context of multiple-use management, lasting protection for inventoried
roadless areas within the National Forest System.
SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS.
In this Act:
(1) Inventoried roadless area.--The term ``inventoried
roadless area'' means any area in which road construction, road
reconstruction, or logging is subject to regulation under the
Roadless Rule.
(2) Roadless rule.--The term ``Roadless Rule'' means part
294 of title 36, Code of Federal Regulations, as adopted on
January 12, 2001, and modified for Idaho on October 16, 2008,
and for Colorado on July 3, 2012, and December 19, 2016.
(3) Secretary.--The term ``Secretary'' means the Secretary
of Agriculture, acting through the Chief of the Forest Service.
SEC. 4. PROTECTION OF INVENTORIED ROADLESS AREAS.
The Secretary shall not allow road construction, road
reconstruction, or logging in an inventoried roadless area where those
activities are prohibited by the Roadless Rule.
<all>
Introduced in Senate
Read twice and referred to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.
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