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FACT SHEET
Arizona Roadless Areas, Big Game Habitat, and Hunting
“When hunting him (wapiti)…He must be followed on foot, and the man who follows him must be sound in limb and wind.”
Theodore Roosevelt
Current Road and Roadless Conditions
- National Forest System (NFS) lands in Arizona have more than 28,720 miles of roads, 6.53% of all NFS roads in the country, and more than enough miles of roads to reach around the circumference of the earth. Over 380,000 miles of mapped roads and 60,000 miles unmapped logging roads currently exist in the NFS, enough to reach the moon with more than 40,000 miles left over. 1
- There is currently a $190.7 million cumulative road maintenance backlog on NFS roads within Arizona. The current national NFS road maintenance backlog is $8.4 billion. Of the 28,720 miles of roads on Arizona’s national forests, only 3,025 miles receive annual maintenance. The annual maintenance backlog is $24.6 million, with roads receiving only 20.4% of the maintenance budget needed to keep them safe and usable.
- Arizona has 1.174 million acres of Inventoried Roadless Areas located on 6 national forests. 2
Roads and Wildlife Habitat
- Silvicultural treatments can be beneficial to wildlife populations and enhance wildlife habitat by creating more openings and early successional stages in areas that currently contain dense stands of trees. However, the subsequent increased use of vehicles on existing logging roads and trails can disrupt wildlife movement patterns and change the distribution of wildlife. 3
- Many studies have shown that elk and other wildlife avoid habitats within a 0.25 mile of roadways that receive substantial vehicle traffic. While secondary roads do not necessarily impact elk and other wildlife use, the levels of vehicle use on the roads during periods of high recreational activity can influence wildlife use of habitat adjacent to open forest roads. In addition, road construction creates cumulative habitat loss that increases impacts to elk as road densities increase. 4
- Increased levels of use on public roads can be a major contributor to habitat fragmentation by dividing large landscapes into smaller patches and disrupt wildlife movement patterns. 5
- Road-related variables have been implicated as increasing elk vulnerability in virtually every study in forested areas in other western states in which the influence of roads has been examined. Bull elk vulnerability was shown to be highest in areas with open roads, reduced in areas with closed roads, and lowest in roadless areas. 6
Hunter Attitudes
- A survey of hunters’ attitudes toward roads in the National forests found: 7
- The majority of hunters (65%) who hunt on national forests in 33 states report that gaining access to private hunting lands has become more difficult over the past 5 years.
- Most hunters (85%) support repairing and maintaining existing roads before building new roads on National Forest System lands.
- Most hunters (83%) support keeping existing roadless areas in our national forests in their current roadless state.
- Hunting in Arizona has an economic value of $212 million to the state reported in the 2001 National Survey of Fishing, Hunting and Wildlife-Associated Recreation, based on 1.1- million hunter/days.
- Input from hunters indicates a wide range of preferred access to public lands including areas accessible by foot, horseback, and motorized vehicle. Hunters have also expressed their desire to maintain reasonable administrative access for wildlife management purposes.
- Increasing density and diversity of recreational uses of public lands has resulted in dispersion into previously low use areas and has resulted in conflicts among all recreational users and increased impacts to natural resources.
The Message from Hunters and Anglers Today
- The prevailing message from hunters and anglers is “Leave things as they are now. Don’t build new roads into roadless areas, but make sure hunters and anglers have access to national forest lands and roadless areas.”
Sources of Information
- 1996 Report of USDA Forest Service
- http://roadless.fs.fed.us/states/az/state3.shtml
- Leege, T.A. 1976. Relationship of logging to decline of Pete King elk herd. In Proceedings of the Elk- Logging-Roads Symposium, pp. 6-10.
- Lyon, L.J. 1979. Habitat effectiveness for elk as influenced by roads and cover. Journal of Forestry 77 10:658-660.
- Noss, R.F., and A.Y. Cooperrider. 1994. Saving Nature's Legacy: Protecting and Restoring Biodiversity. Defenders of Wildlife and Island Press, Washington, D.C.
- Lyon, L.J., Weber, and Burcham. 1997. Reducing Elk Vulnerability with Road Closures and Landscape Management: A Model.
- Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Alliance. 2000. Survey of National Forest Hunters’ Attitudes Toward Roads in the National Forests.
This fact sheet was compiled by the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership.
The Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership is a coalition of leading conservation organizations and individual grassroots partners, working together to expand access to places to hunt and fish, conserve fish and wildlife and their habitat, and increase funding for conservation and management.
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