Los Padres National Forest contains more than 600,000 acres of roadless lands that are eligible for wilderness protection but have not yet received formal wilderness designation from Congress. The management of these lands—and the levels of development allowed within them—are set forth in the forest’s Land Management Plan.
The U.S. Forest Service updated this management plan in 2012 but refused to recommend any new wilderness protections for these pristine roadless areas. ForestWatch and our allies helped generate more than 10,000 comments from residents urging forest officials to strengthen protections for roadless areas. We crafted our own detailed technical comment letter, filed a formal objection when our concerns were ignored, and negotiated an agreement with the Forest Service to increase the level of protection for roadless areas to better protect them from roadbuilding and motorized use. As a result, sixteen roadless areas totaling 293,000 acres now receive stronger protections from development.
One of them—the De La Guerra Roadless Area between Figueroa Mountain and Ranger Peak—was threatened by a massive road-building scheme. These roads were proposed as part of a commercial livestock grazing operation in the area. Through a series of letters, appeals, lawsuits, and negotiations, the Forest Service in 2016 agreed to remove seven miles of unneeded roads from this area to better protect its roadless character. Forest officials also agreed to undertake a multi-year study to better understand how grazing impacts oak tree recruitment.
