Congress has opened the door to what could be a $10 billion effort to remove or repair U.S. Forest Service roads throughout the country, said Bonnie Phillips of the Washington Watershed Restoration Initiative.
Phillips said she was both thrilled and disappointed, because the first year of the Legacy Roads Program provides just $39.5 million for all the national forests.
“I’m delighted that we’re making progress,” she said. “It’s a foot in the door, and Congressman (Norm) Dicks has done an incredible job to get this going.”
Three years ago, it looked like a hopeless cause, Phillips said. Federal officials were estimating that it could take 100 years and cost $10 billion to clean up all the forest streams because of the amount of silt being washed off outdated forest roads.
State officials learned this week that national forests in Washington will receive $3.46 million this year.
Dicks, D-Wash., said he tried to get more money this year, but he ran into roadblocks.
“I wish we could have done more, but the president made us cut money out of our bill, so I was not able to do what I wanted to do,” said Dicks, chairman of the House Interior and Environment Appropriations Subcommittee. “This was an effort on my part to point out we have a serious problem.”
The Forest Service budget is being eaten up by firefighting expenses, Dicks said, and conditions seem to be getting worse, possibly as a result of climate change.
The Forest Service needs to spend $300 million in Washington state alone to bring forest streams into compliance with state and federal water quality standards, according to estimates from the state Department of Ecology.
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