Land Management Plan - Part 2 Los Padres National Forest Strategy

Land Management Plan Part 2
Los Padres National Forest Strategy
Inventoried Roadless Areas
September 2005
Inventoried Roadless Areas (IRAs) were originally mapped as a result of the second Roadless
Area Review (RARE II), which was documented in a final environmental impact statement dated
January of 1979, and refined during development of the national forest land management plans.
These maps were identified in a set of inventoried roadless area maps, contained in the Forest
Service Roadless Area Conservation Rule, Final Environmental Impact Statement, Volume 2,
dated November 2000. A final Roadless Area Conservation Rule was published in May of 2005,
allowing optional State government involvement through a petition process. Alternatively the
1982 NFMA planning rule allows for the analysis and evaluation of roadless areas, including
boundary adjustments, in the forest plan revision process. An updated inventory has been
prepared to reflect changes in the roadless inventory due to analysis and evaluation made in this
forest plan revision. Adjustments to the inventory include correction of mapping errors including
boundary roads mistakenly included within an IRA, removal of those areas that Congress has
designated as wilderness (21,123 acres on the Los Padres National Forest), addition of
undeveloped areas that were not part of the original inventory but were recommended as
wilderness in this forest plan, and implementation of the following classification to reflect the
land use zoning decisions in the revised forest plan:
• 1a - IRAs allocated to a prescription that does not allow road construction and the forest
plan recommends as wilderness.
• 1b - IRAs allocated to a prescription that does not allow road construction or
reconstruction.
• 1c - IRAs allocated to a prescription that allows road construction or reconstruction.
(See the Inventoried Roadless Area Maps in Appendix C)
Research Natural Areas
Research Natural Areas are relatively undisturbed areas of the national forest that form a longterm
network of ecological reserves designated for research, education, and the maintenance of
biodiversity. This designation applies to both established and proposed research natural areas.
Research Natural Areas are designated to preserve a spectrum of relatively pristine areas that
represent a wide range of natural variability within important natural ecosystems and
environments, and areas that have unique characteristics of scientific importance. Research
Natural Areas are also selected for one or more of the following reasons:
• To serve as reference areas for evaluating the range of natural variability and the impacts
of management in similar environments.
• To protect and maintain representative or key elements of biological diversity at the
genetic, species, population, community, or ecosystem levels.
• To serve as areas for the study of ecosystems and ecological processes including
succession.
• To provide onsite and extension educational activities.
• To serve as baseline areas for measuring ecological change.
Uses that retain the research values for which the site is designated are appropriate.
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