Forest Service Road System

The Forest Service Road System consists of more than 380,000 miles (610,000 km) of roads, with a majority over 70 years old as of 2026^[update]. Due to the large amount of roads and comparatively low budget, only about 20% of what would be required, many roads are in disrepair.^[1][2][3] In terms of total lane miles, the USFS manages more road than all but two states (California and Texas),^[4][5] and it is eight times the length of the Interstate Highway System.^[6]

Less than a quarter of all Forest Service roads are maintained for passenger cars, and only about 7% were two-lane or asphalt-surfaced as of 1998^[update].^[7] In 2000, an estimated 1.7 million recreational vehicles used Forest Service roads each day, with 80% of that on just 20% of the system.^[1] The USFS breaks the roads into five maintenance levels, with levels 3–5 acceptable for passenger cars. Roads in maintenance level 2 are maintained for high clearance vehicles, and level-1 roads are closed to vehicle use entirely.^[7]

Forest Service roads are not legally classified as public roads, despite many being open to public use. The Forest Service may designate a road as public, but most roads are authorized only for the administration, protection, and utilization of National Forest System lands.^[8] Some public forest roads may be closed seasonally to prevent damage to the road, or may have other restrictions, such as only allowing high-clearance vehicles.^[5] The Motor Vehicle Use Map (MVUM) was created by the Forest Service as part of the 2005 Final Travel Management Rule and displays National Forest System routes or areas open to motorized travel, including many Forest Service roads. Roads not on the MVUM are not open to the public.^[9]

Today, Forest Service roads must be constructed and maintained in a way that considers the protection of endangered species and their habitats, water sources, and archeological resources.^[5] This was not always the case, and many roads built in the past now cause issues for the local environment. Forest Service roads were identified as a major source of sediment and soil erosion in forest watersheds, which can damage habitat and degrade water quality.^[3][10][11]

Before 1913, lacking authority and funding, the Forest Service did not build roads. This changed in 1913 when Congress allowed the agency to spend up to 10% of their national forest budget on roads and trails. The money had to be spent in the state from which the National Forest funds were taken.^[12] Following the Federal Aid Road Act of 1916, construction on the road system expanded. During the Great Depression, the Forest Service shifted away from trails in favor of roads and hosted hundreds of Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) camps across the nation. The CCC built many of the roads using the recently invented bulldozer. These roads were primarily used for fire control.^[12][13] By the start of World War II in 1939, the road system was about 100,000 miles (160,000 km) long.^[13]

• 
  Using a bulldozer to clear stumps
• 
  Using power tools to clear rocks
• 
  Leveling
• 
  Finished road

Following World War II, in an effort to bolster the US economy, it was decided that the road system would be funded by the timber industry rather than the US Treasury. The building of these roads gave credit towards payments owed to the government for the timber, incentivizing logging companies to build roads. Some downsides to this approach are that National Grasslands were often ignored, and that logging companies often only made roads that suited their needs without environmental consideration.^[13]

The road system expanded to 200,000 miles (320,000 km) long by 1970 and 300,000 miles (480,000 km) by 1980. In 2004, the inventoried length of the system was 386,000 miles (621,000 km), with estimates placing the total count somewhere between 650,000 and 800,000 miles (1,050,000 and 1,290,000 km). Of this count, only about 86,000 miles (139,000 km) were intended for passenger cars.^[13]

From the 1990s on, new construction of Forest Service roads continuously went down, from 2,310 miles (3,720 km) built in 1988 to only 215 miles (346 km) in 1998. From 1991 to 1997, the Forest Service decommissioned an average of 2,700 miles (4,300 km) of road per year, marking a net decline in Forest Service roads.^[2]

• Forest Highways, a subset of public Forest Service roads