Reserved and roadless forests
| Authors: | David Azuma, James S. Menlove, Andrew Gray |
| Year: | 2009 |
| Type: | General Technical Report |
| Station: | Washington Office |
| Source: | In: Smith, W. Brad, tech. coord.; Miles, Patrick D., data coord.; Perry, Charles H., map coord.; Pugh, Scott A., Data CD coord. Forest Resources of the United States, 2007. Gen. Tech. Rep. WO-78. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Washington Office. p. 16-18. |
Abstract
Some 74 million acres of forest land, or 10 percent of all U.S. forest land, are permanently reserved from wood product utilization through statute or administrative designation. A large part of these lands is in wilderness areas, national parks, and national monuments. Although the primary reason for protecting many of the areas is not preservation of forest characteristics, the forest land they contain may be different from those of forest land in general, either regionally or nationally. For instance, national forest wilderness areas in the West are often at the highest elevations in the national forests. Because reserved forests are less intensively managed than other forests, at least through timber removal, differences in stand age and fuels accumulation would be expected.