# Plain Language Summary: Legacy Roads and Trails Act

This bill creates a new program within the Forest Service to fix and improve roads and trails on national forests across the country. The program focuses on three main types of work: repairing roads and trails that have been neglected or damaged by storms, removing or fixing barriers that block fish and wildlife from moving through waterways (like old culverts under roads), and permanently closing roads that are no longer needed. The bill specifically tells the Forest Service to think about how climate change might affect weather patterns and water flow when deciding which projects to tackle first.

The Forest Service will prioritize projects based on what they protect or restore. They'll focus on areas that improve water quality, supply drinking water to communities, protect endangered species, or are part of already-planned watershed restoration projects. Within four years, the Forest Service must identify which roads in each national forest are actually necessary to keep open and which ones are unnecessary. Any roads deemed unnecessary must then be either permanently closed and restored to natural conditions or converted into hiking and recreation trails.

The bill provides $100 million per year for ten years to fund this work. This money will go toward the actual labor and materials needed to repair infrastructure, remove old roads, restore streams, and handle all the associated cleanup and restoration work. Essentially, this is an investment in cleaning up the backlog of maintenance issues on national forests while also improving environmental conditions for water quality and wildlife.

Legacy Roads and Trails Act

Legacy Roads and Trails Act This bill directs the Department of Agriculture (USDA) to establish the Forest Service Legacy Roads and Trails Remediation Program. Specifically, under the program, the Forest Service, taking into account predicted changes in weather and hydrology related to global climate change, shall <ul> <li>carry out storm damage risk reduction, including deferred maintenance, repairs, road and trail relocation, and associated activities on roads, trails, tunnels, and bridges under the jurisdiction of the Forest Service; </li> <li>restore waterways and natural migration of fish and other aquatic species by removing or replacing culverts or other infrastructure from such waterways; and </li> <li> decommission unneeded roads.</li> </ul> In implementing the program, the Forest Service shall give priority to projects that protect or restore <ul> <li>water quality and watershed function; </li> <li> a watershed that supplies a public drinking water system; </li> <li> the habitat of a threatened, endangered, or sensitive fish or wildlife species, or a species of conservation concern; or </li> <li> a watershed for which the Forest Service has completed a watershed protection and restoration action plan. </li> </ul> The Forest Service shall identify the minimum road system needed for each unit of the National Forest System. USDA shall review, and may revise, an identification of the minimum road system in accordance with federal regulations relating to the administration of the forest transportation system.