National Forests in California
• California contains a total of 20,698,000 acres of national forest land, about 20.3 percent of California’s landmass.
National Forests in California include:
The Angeles, Cleveland, Eldorado, Inyo, Klamath, Lake Tahoe, Lassen, Los Padres, Mendocino, Modoc, Plumas, San Bernardino, Sequoia, Shasta-Trinity, Sierra, Six Rivers, Stanislaus, and Tahoe National Forests.
Inventoried Roadless Area Acreage:
• California’s national forests contain 4,416,000 acres of inventoried roadless areas (IRAs), about 21.3% of all national forest land in the state.[1]
Impacts on Logging
• The total estimated reduction in annual logging in IRAs in California is 3.3 million board feet, less than a 1% reduction from recent historic harvest on national forest lands.
Job Impacts
• The estimated statewide reduction in employment related to timber harvest from IRAs in California is 24 jobs.3
Forest Plans
• Current Forest Service management plans in California prohibit road construction and reconstruction on 1,890,000 acres, or 42.8% of all IRAs. Road building is allowed on the other 2,527,000 acres, or 57.2%.4
Public Involvement and Support
• The Forest Service held 61 public meetings in California during the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) comment period on the development of the Roadless Area Conservation Rule throughout the state.5
• Nationwide, the Forest Service held more than 600 public hearings during the development of the Roadless Area Conservation Rule.
• More than 1.6 million Americans submitted comments in support of protecting roadless areas, including nearly 1.2 million comments during the DEIS comment period. Of these 1.2 million comments, 95.9% supported the complete protection of all roadless areas. 4
• The Forest Service received 187,695 comments from residents of California during the DEIS comment period. Of these 187,695 comments, 97.6% supported the complete protection of all roadless areas. 6
• A March 2000 public opinion poll conducted by Fairbanks, Masslin & Maulin found that 72% of California residents supported the complete protection of these last remaining wild areas of their national forests.
