Hamilton, MT: How does the preferred alternative address the issue of protecting roadless areas – both inventoried and non-inventoried?
The Draft EIS strategy for roadless areas assumes that Wilderness recommendations made in current forest plans for the area will continue. The scale for this EIS decision is inappropriate for individual roadless area evaluations, according to the DEISs. Therefore, existing Wilderness recommendations, made for some roadless areas in the current forest plans, will stand. Any additional roadless area evaluations will occur in Forest Plan revisions and statewide Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Wilderness reports. BLM Wilderness Study Areas (WSAs) still will be managed under the Bureau Interim Management Policy, and management actions in BLM WSAs will comply with this policy. Management Emphasis in Roaded Areas: Forest restoration objectives in the preferred alternative will indirectly affect roadless areas. Highest priority for forest ecosystem restoration is on roaded areas with higher tree densities than desired and on areas where tree species are inappropriate for the site. While this e
