16 U.S.C. § 1608
Section 1608 · National Forest Transportation System
Amended 3 times on record
Applied in 6 court decisions — leading case Thomas v. Peterson (1985)
Most recently applied in Burns v. United States (December 2017)
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year.Markers show enactment, consequential amendments, and circuit splits over this section — watch for a citation surge after a change or a disagreement. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
The Congress declares that the installation of a proper system of transportation to service the National Forest System, as is provided for in sections 532 to 538 of this title, shall be carried forward in time to meet anticipated needs on an economical and environmentally sound basis, and the method chosen for financing the construction and maintenance of the transportation system should be such as to enhance local, regional, and national benefits: Provided, That limitations on the level of obligations for construction of forest roads by timber purchasers shall be established in annual appropriation Acts.
Unless the necessity for a permanent road is set forth in the forest development road system plan, any road constructed on land of the National Forest System in connection with a timber contract or other permit or lease shall be designed with the goal of reestablishing vegetative cover on the roadway and areas where the vegetative cover has been disturbed by the construction of the road, within ten years after the termination of the contract, permit, or lease either through artificial or natural means. Such action shall be taken unless it is later determined that the road is needed for use as a part of the National Forest Transportation System.
Roads constructed on National Forest System lands shall be designed to standards appropriate for the intended uses, considering safety, cost of transportation, and impacts on land and resources.
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
Amendments
1981—Subsec. (a). Pub. L. 97–100 substituted “Provided, That limitations on the level of obligations for construction of forest roads by timber purchasers shall be established in annual appropriation Acts” for “, except that the financing of forest development roads as authorized by clause (2) of section 535 of this title, shall be deemed ‘budget authority’ and ‘budget outlays’ as those terms are defined in section 1302(a) of title 31, and shall be effective for any fiscal year only in the manner required for new spending authority as specified by section 1351(a) of title 31”.
1976—Pub. L. 94–588, §8, designated existing provisions as subsec. (a) and added subsecs. (b) and (c).
Transfer of Functions
For transfer of certain enforcement functions of Secretary or other official in Department of Agriculture under this subchapter to Federal Inspector, Office of Federal Inspector for Alaska Natural Gas Transportation System, and subsequent transfer to Secretary of Energy, see note set out under section 1601 of this title.