Conservation

Roadless areas are among the most ecologically significant components of a landscape because they could potentially be designated as reserves, wilderness, or other natural areas, and because they are the most likely to contain large, mature, unfragmented forest habitats. As important as they are, large roadless areas are relatively scarce in northern New England because of a long history of human use, the relative lack of large public lands, and extensive commercial forest ownership and management. Despite this, the Northern Forest region is more likely to contain large roadless areas than more heavily populated and developed parts of the Northeast.

In 1999, the AMC sought to identify the remaining roadless areas in the region of northern Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont. Researchers considered any parcel greater than 4,940 acres (2,000 hectares) across the 23 million-acre study region. The data would help the AMC and our conservation partners establish regional conservation priorities and develop specific conservation proposals.

Study Criteria
Because existing digital data does not accurately represent the extensive and ever-changing network of private roads across the region, the primary source of information became the latest available satellite imagery taken between 1996 and 1998 (the study's baseline period). Other sources of information were up-to-date road atlases and a previous AMC study on historical forest clearing between the late 1960s and 1991.

To be considered a roadless area, the land had to show no evidence of roads on the imagery, no improved roads on the atlas maps, and no evidence of heavy harvesting either on the imagery or in the forest clearing study.

The Findings
The study identified 137 areas ranging in size from 4,940 acres to 192,660 acres. In total they encompass more than 2.4 million acres, or about 11 percent of the total study area. You can view a locator map of these roadless areas, or to access more detailed information visit the Interactive Mapping Service.

Other significant findings of the study:

• The median size of roadless areas was about 11,000 acres, with the largest area encompassing much of Baxter State Park in Maine and adjacent lands.
  
  
• Roadless areas are disproportionately concentrated on public conservation lands. Public lands make up 10 percent of the study area but encompass 44 percent of the total roadless acreage. The 15 largest roadless blocks (those above 37,000 acres) were all located at least partially on a large block of public land, with seven of these in the White Mountain/Mahoosuc Range region, the Baxter State Park region, and the Mount Mansfield/Camel's Hump region — all public lands. Public lands are more likely than private lands to have large areas kept in a natural condition for ecological protection or backcountry recreation.
  
  
• Roadless areas are disproportionately concentrated at higher elevations. Less than 5 percent of land below 1,700 feet was mapped as roadless, compared with more than 70 percent of land above 2,700 feet and almost all land above 3,700 feet. This is not surprising since most human development, as well as the majority of timber road construction and harvesting, takes place in the gentler and more accessible terrain at lower elevations.

The areas identified in this study are not pristine primary forest. All have been harvested in the past, and many contain unimproved, abandoned, or otherwise low-impact roads and logging trails. Some areas may have undergone less intensive recent harvesting not evident on the satellite imagery. Thus, it is more appropriate to characterize these areas as "very low road density" rather than truly roadless. However, they clearly represent the least impacted parts of an otherwise heavily roaded and harvested landscape.

But these findings — this entire study — represent a snapshot in time of an ever-changing landscape. Since the decline of river drives and logging railroads and the rise of road-based transportation in the middle of the last century, an ever-expanding network of logging roads has become a permanent feature of the landscape. Already many of the areas identified in the study have undergone subsequent road construction and harvesting. It is likely that within 20 years most of the roadless areas on private commercial timberlands will be gone or greatly diminished. At that time, the only areas remaining will be those intentionally maintained on public or private conservation land or those where topography limits road construction and harvesting. Protecting the most significant of these large roadless areas is an important part of the AMC's conservation efforts — both on public lands such as the White Mountain National Forest and in the identification of conservation priority areas.

The Value of the Identified Areas
The conservation value of the areas identified in this study varies widely. Conditions range from notably mature forests that saw only limited, selective harvesting many decades ago to middle-aged forests of no particular ecological significance. Having no roads on these parcels is an important factor when assessing conservation priorities, but this information is most valuable when combined with other types of information:

• on-the-ground assessment to determine current forest condition.
• presence of features of high ecological or recreational value.
• proximity to conservation lands or other high-value areas. (See table.)

Location and Summary Data: 15 Roadless Areas
Roadless Area	Associated public land tract	Roadless area size (acres)	Percent of roadless area on public land
Mount Katahdin	Baxter State Park	193,00	69
Pemigewasset	White Mountain NF	122,7000	99
Sandwich Range	White Mountain NF	75,800	98
Wild River	White Mountain NF	71,600	95
Mahoosuc Range	MBPL Mahoosuc tract	55,800	26
Presidential Range-Dry River	White Mountain NF	51,600	97
Debouillie Lakes	MBPL Debouillie tract	49,800	28
Grand Lake Matagamon	Baxter State Park	49,000	77
Bigelow Range	MBPL Bigelow tract	47,700	62
Debsconeag Lakes	MBPL Nahmakanta tract	46,400	28
Saddleback-Sugarloaf	US Navy Redington tract	42,600	34
Mount Mansfield	Mount Mansfield State Forest	41,900	62
Carr Mountain	White Mountain NF	41,200	84
Kilkenny	White Mountain NF	40,600	87
Camel's Hump	Camel's Hump State Park	39,300	56