Forest Highways or Forest Routes are a category of
road
A road is a thoroughfare used primarily for movement of traffic. Roads differ from streets, whose primary use is local access. They also differ from stroads, which combine the features of streets and roads. Most modern roads are paved.
Th ...
s within
United States National Forest
In the United States, national forest is a classification of protected and managed federal lands that are largely forest and woodland areas. They are owned collectively by the American people through the federal government and managed by the ...
s. They are built to connect the national forests to the existing state highway systems, and to provide improved access to recreational and logging areas.
Description
United States federal law
The law of the United States comprises many levels of Codification (law), codified and uncodified forms of law, of which the supreme law is the nation's Constitution of the United States, Constitution, which prescribes the foundation of the ...
defines the term ''Forest Highway'' as "a forest road under the jurisdiction of, and maintained by, a public authority and open to public travel."
Forest highways are designated by the
United States Forest Service
The United States Forest Service (USFS) is an agency within the United States Department of Agriculture, U.S. Department of Agriculture. It administers the nation's 154 United States National Forest, national forests and 20 United States Natio ...
and funded by the
federal government
A federation (also called a federal state) is an entity characterized by a political union, union of partially federated state, self-governing provinces, states, or other regions under a #Federal governments, federal government (federalism) ...
, but are generally owned and maintained by the
state
State most commonly refers to:
* State (polity), a centralized political organization that regulates law and society within a territory
**Sovereign state, a sovereign polity in international law, commonly referred to as a country
**Nation state, a ...
s or
counties
A county () is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesL. Brookes (ed.) '' Chambers Dictionary''. Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, 2005. in some nations. The term is derived from the Old French denoti ...
in which they are located. The forest highway system comprises approximately of roads.
Forest highways are usually marked with markers in the shape of an
isosceles trapezoid
In Euclidean geometry, an isosceles trapezoid is a convex quadrilateral with a line of symmetry bisecting one pair of opposite sides. It is a special case of a trapezoid. Alternatively, it can be defined as a trapezoid in which both legs and bo ...
, wider at the top and narrower at the base. The shields are brown with a white border and divided by a horizontal white line. In the majority of the space (above the line), the number of the route appears in white
Highway Gothic
The Standard Alphabets For Traffic Control Devices, (also known as the FHWA Series fonts and unofficially as Highway Gothic), is a sans-serif typeface developed by the United States Federal Highway Administration (FHWA). The font is used for road ...
numbers, while in the smaller space below the line is written "National Forest" in the cursive
Forest Service logo
A logo (abbreviation of logotype; ) is a graphic mark, emblem, or symbol used to aid and promote public identification and recognition. It may be of an abstract or figurative design or include the text of the name that it represents, as in ...
type
Type may refer to:
Science and technology Computing
* Typing, producing text via a keyboard, typewriter, etc.
* Data type, collection of values used for computations.
* File type
* TYPE (DOS command), a command to display contents of a file.
* ...
used to write "National Forest" on national forest gateway signs. To qualify for inclusion in the system, a roadway must "be wholly or partially within, or adjacent to, and serving the National Forest System" among other criteria.
History
In the 1920s, forest highway was a class of
federal aid
A subsidy, subvention or government incentive is a type of government expenditure for individuals and households, as well as businesses with the aim of stabilizing the economy. It ensures that individuals and households are viable by having acce ...
, and could be used outside forests, as long as the projects improved access to the forests.
Gallery
File:Michigan,_Federal_Forest_Highway_13_in_the_snow,_2001.jpg, Federal Forest Highway 13 in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan
The Upper Peninsula of Michigan—also known as Upper Michigan or colloquially the U.P. or Yoop—is the northern and more elevated of the two major landmasses that make up the U.S. state of Michigan; it is separated from the Lower Peninsula of ...
File:Puerto Rico Highway 191 - 3.jpg, Forest Highway 191 in El Yunque National Forest
El Yunque National Forest (), formerly known as the Caribbean National Forest (or ''Bosque Nacional del Caribe''), is a forest located in northeastern Puerto Rico. While there are both temperate and tropical rainforests in other states and terri ...
See also
*
Forest road
left, alt=Pathway through forest., Concrete pathway through deep forest in India.
Forest tracks or forest roads are roads or tracks intended to carry motorised vehicles or horse-drawn wagons being used mainly or exclusively for forestry purposes, ...
*
National Forest Scenic Byway
The National Forest Scenic Byways are roads that have been designated by the U.S. Forest Service as scenic byways. Many are also National Scenic Byways (NSB). The program was initiated in 1987.
List
The following roadways were listed by the Fede ...
References
External links
Forest Highways at Federal Lands Highway Division
at California Highways
{{Authority control
Highways
A highway is any public or private road or other public way on land. It includes not just major roads, but also other public roads and rights of way. In the United States, it is also used as an equivalent term to controlled-access highway, or ...
Types of roads