Assessing the value of roadless areas in a conservation reserve strategy: biodiversity and landscape connectivity in the northern Rockies

1. Roadless areas on United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Forest Service lands hold significant potential for the conservation of native biodiversity and ecosystem processes, primarily because of their size and location. We examined the potential increase in land-cover types, elevation representation and landscape connectivity that inventoried roadless areas would provide in a northern Rockies (USA) conservation reserve strategy, if these roadless areas received full protection. 2 For the northern Rocky Mountain states of Montana, Wyoming and Idaho, USA, we obtained GIS data on land-cover types and a digital elevation model. We calculated the percentage of land-cover types and elevation ranges of current protected areas (wilderness, national parks and national wildlife refuges) and compared these with the percentages calculated for roadless and protected areas combined. Using five landscape metrics and corresponding statistics, we quantified how roadless areas, when assessed with current protected areas, affect three elements of landscape connectivity: area, isolation and aggregation. 3. Roadless areas, when added to existing federal-protected areas in the northern Rockies, increase the representation of virtually all land-cover types, some by more than 100%, and increase the protection of relatively undisturbed lower elevation lands, which are exceedingly rare in the northern Rockies. In fact, roadless areas protect more rare and declining land-cover types, such as aspen, whitebark pine, sagebrush and grassland communities, than existing protected areas. 4. Synthesis and applications. Landscape metric results for the three elements of landscape connectivity (area, isolation and aggregation) demonstrate how roadless areas adjacent to protected areas increase connectivity by creating larger and more cohesive protected area 'patches.' Roadless areas enhance overall landscape connectivity by reducing isolation among protected areas and creating a more dispersed conservation reserve network, important for maintaining wide-ranging species movements. We advocate that the USDA Forest Service should retain the Roadless Area Conservation Rule and manage roadless areas as an integral part of the conservation reserve network for the northern Rockies.