Recreation & Economy

Roadless areas support a kind of recreation that depends on what isn't there. The Forest Service classifies recreation settings along a spectrum from urban to primitive, and inventoried roadless areas anchor the primitive and semi-primitive end of that spectrum — landscapes where visitors can hike, hunt, fish, camp, and ride in conditions of solitude, quiet, and apparent naturalness. These conditions are not abstract. They are the conditions that hunters seek when they want elk, deer, or bear away from road-accessed crowds; that anglers seek for native trout streams that haven't been warmed or silted by upstream road runoff; that outfitters build small businesses around; and that visitors travel to experience. The recreation roadless areas provide works because access is dispersed, mechanized use is limited, and the landscapes have not been industrialized (USDA Forest Service 2016).

Research on recreation also documents what changes when those conditions break down. Anthropogenic noise — including from vehicle traffic on roads — doubles background sound levels in 63 percent of U.S. protected area units and produces a tenfold increase in 21 percent of them. The same noise affects wildlife: more than 93 percent of studied animal species show measurable responses to recreation disturbance, with the majority of responses being negative. Motorized use in particular brings dust, noise, soil compaction, vegetation damage, and disturbance to cultural resources at scales that non-motorized recreation does not. Forest Service Chief Dale Bosworth named "unmanaged recreation, including impacts from OHVs," as one of four key threats facing national forests in 2004. The kind of recreation roadless areas support is not unlimited or unmanaged; it works because access is constrained (Buxton et al. 2017; Larson et al. 2016; USDA Forest Service 2016).

The economic case for protecting roadless recreation rests on evidence that the "amenity economies" of the rural West increasingly depend on the conditions roadless areas provide. Research on Western U.S. economic growth describes a shift from an "Old West" economy dominated by extractive industries to a "New West" economy in which population, employment, and income growth are driven by environmental amenities, residential appeal, and recreational property. Counties with substantial protected federal lands have shown faster growth in population, employment, and per capita income than counties without — and the growth has been concentrated in service-based industries, including lodging, dining, and professional services (Izon et al. 2010; Holmes & Hecox 2002). The economic value also includes passive use — what economists call the value people place on knowing an area remains intact for future generations. For Western wilderness areas, this value has been estimated at roughly $168 per acre, with wilderness recreation generating an estimated $574 million annually in economic value at an average of $39 per recreation day (Loomis 2000). Rescission would not destroy these values everywhere at once, but it would change the conditions on a substantial share of acreage where they currently exist.