Date: December 30, 2002

Greetings,

After reviewing public comments and completing an internal review, I have determined that no areas on the Hoosier National Forest qualify as a roadless area. Fourteen areas were reviewed to determine if they met eight specific roadless characteristics. None of the fourteen areas met all eight roadless characteristics. Specifically, road density, the presence of non Forest Service jurisdiction roads, powerlines, pipelines, and inability for an area to be conducive to the perpetuation of wilderness values disqualified all the areas.

While reviewing areas on the Hoosier National Forest for possible inclusion as inventoried roadless areas and recommendations as wilderness, I have to look closely at what areas meet all the roadless criteria, including which areas do or do not meet the opportunity to provide solitude based on information identified in Recreation Opportunity Spectrum (ROS). ROS is a combination of activities, settings, and probable experience opportunities that have been arranged along a continuum. There are six classes in ROS that are defined (primitive, semi-primitive non-motorized, semi-primitive motorized, roaded natural, rural, and urban) and these classes help planners identify areas of the National Forest that a certain experience has the greatest opportunity to occur (USDA 1986). Specifically, we looked at areas that meet primitive and semi-primitive the ROS class.

A contractor mapped the criteria of the ROS to the Hoosier National Forest. The results indicated there are no areas on the forest that meet the primitive ROS class. Three areas on the forest meet semi-primitive ROS class. These semi-primitive areas are portions of Mogan Ridge, Nebo Ridge, and the Charles C. Deam Wilderness. However, when all eight criteria were applied to Mogan Ridge and Nebo Ridge, they did not qualify as roadless.

The Hoosier National Forest did not want to improperly disqualify an area without taking a hard look at applying the roadless characteristics to all areas on the forest that had the greatest potential of meeting those characteristics. For this reason, many areas on the forest were reviewed, even though it may have appeared they did not to meet the roadless characteristics. However, I wanted to ensure the forest planning team applied the roadless characteristics to all areas so I could make a proper decision regarding roadless areas.

The attached table (Table 1) addresses all fourteen areas reviewed. This table identifies the existing conditions that disqualified an area from further consideration as a roadless area. The first four conditions, which disqualify most of the areas, have to do with items not under Forest Service control. We mapped Nebo Ridge, the only area not disqualified by the first four conditions, three different ways to evaluate whether it met the roadless criteria. We ended up with an area shaped in such a way that it would not perpetuate wilderness values.

Thank you for your interest regarding the review of potential roadless areas on the Hoosier National Forest. We look forward to your input on upcoming Forest Plan revision topics.

If you have any questions, please contact Eric Sandeno at 812-275-5987.

Sincerely,

/s/ Wilma Reed Marine

KENNETH G. DAY
Forest Supervisor

Enclosure

Table 1 below indicates why an area is not being considered for inclusion as a roadless area on the Hoosier National Forest.

Table 1

* Note – This represents the review of the third re-mapping of Nebo Ridge.