Recreational Forest Roads on Maine's Public Reserved Lands

<strong>Recreational</strong>
<strong>Forest</strong> <strong>Roads</strong>
on Maine’s Public
Reserved Lands
2013 NERCOFE Meeting
Presented by Chuck Simpson
Eastern Region Lands Manager

Maine’s Public
Reserved Lands
• Maine Department of
Agriculture, Conservation
& <strong>Forest</strong>ry
• Division of Parks & Public
Lands
• 400,000 regulated forest
acres; 600,000 acres total
• 3 regional offices
– Ashland
– Bangor
– Farmington

Maine’s Public Lands

Eastern Region Lands
• 160,000 acres
100,000 regulated
• AAC= 37,000 cord
equivalents
• +/- 150 campsites
• Over 100 miles of
hiking trails
• Dozens of lakes, miles
of rivers and streams

Public Lands Road Classifications
• Public Access <strong>Roads</strong>:
Designed for public use
and maintained to a twowheel
drive passable
standard.
• Management <strong>Roads</strong>:
Designed for timber
management or
administrative use that
may be also used by the
public as long as they
remain in service.
• Service <strong>Roads</strong>:
Administrative, not open
to public.

Public Lands Road Classifications Cont.
Sub-Classification
• Shared-Use <strong>Roads</strong>/Trails: If
suitable for use by ATV’s,
horses, bicycles, etc. a road
or trail may be designated
and signed as Shared-Use
• The Eastern Region has 235
miles of roads. Ninetyeight
are Public Access, 76
are Management <strong>Roads</strong>,
and 130 are Shared-Use
<strong>Roads</strong>.

• A major goal of
Public Lands is to
provide a variety
of opportunities
for recreational
and access
opportunities to
the public.
Public <strong>Recreational</strong>/Access
Opportunities on Public Lands
• One result of this
is the conscious
decision not to
block use of
suitable roads
throughout the
year.
• Many of our
roads are also
parts of organized
trail systems for
either ATV’s or
snow sleds. This
forces us to plan
our management
activities
accordingly.

Road Costs for Public Lands

Planning and Construction
• <strong>Roads</strong> are primarily planned for our
management activities, but we have to
anticipate their future use by the public.
• We typically have narrower rights-of-way clearing
(35’-45’) on our major roads. This makes
construction harder.
• On roads to be designated as Public Access, we
have to construct off-road yards.
• We try to construct all-season roads whenever
possible to provide future public access.
• We tend to build permanent bridges/crossings instead of temporary
ones. This means a bridge deck will only provide access for one
harvesting cycle. We do build temporary crossings when appropriate.
• Due to our visual considerations, we will put turns in a road
exclusively for aesthetic/visual buffers, increasing distances and costs.
• Regional new road construction costs are around $5/ft., not counting
culverts or bridges.

• At times, we
share roads in
the winter
with sleds on
major trails.
This is only
when we have
to access
certain areas
in the winter.
• Sleds on roads
leave ice picks
which inevitably
end up in
someone’s tire;
usually a $500
truck tire.
Safety and Public Use of <strong>Roads</strong>
• We have had a log truck
roll over avoiding sleds,
and a disabled sled being
towed run into a log truck.
• Vegetation control along our roads is always a challenge
and a big safety concern. We wait until after berrypicking
season, and are limited as to how wide we can
clear due to visual concerns.
• At our
Nahmakanta
Unit, we
spent a lot of
money
rerouting
sled and ATV
trails to avoid
conflicts.
• There are several commercial camps whose
clients use our roads for access; by coach
busses in some cases.
• We spend a lot of time and money
installing, repairing and replacing road signs.

Gates on Public Lands

The Costs
• The Eastern Region contains 235 miles of roads on
roughly 160,000 acres.
• A total of 98 miles are Public Access
<strong>Roads</strong> and 130 are Shared-Use.
• We harvest and haul approximately 40,000 cord
equivalents of timber annually.
• In the past three years, we have spent an average
of $127,000 for signage, maintenance, repair and
replacement of roads, bridges, culverts and
roadside vegetation control.

Compliance with
Road Use Policies
• Call on the Road Gods!!

??Questions??

Thank You
Chuck Simpson, Eastern Region
Land Manager
Maine Department of
Agriculture, Conservation &
<strong>Forest</strong>ry
Division of Parks & Public Lands
106 Hogan Road, Suite 5
Bangor, Maine 04401
Tel: 941-4413
E-mail:
chuck.simpson@maine.gov