It was almost 20 years ago when our then Chief of the Forest Service, Dale Robertson, established the National Forest Scenic Byways program as the first national byways program in the nation. Since 1988, our agency has designated 137 roads and forest highways as National Forest Scenic Byways. Today, almost half of the 126 roads designated and marketed by the Department of Transportation (DOT) as America’s Byways® are located entirely or partially on National Forest System lands. Many of these DOT byways were first initiated and designated under our federal agency program. The River Road Scenic Byway in Michigan and Peter Norbeck Scenic Byway in South Dakota are two noteworthy examples.

I think we have found in the byways concept an excellent model for interagency and community collaboration where our managers are actively working across boundaries to conserve special landscapes, build community pride, and leverage scarce resources for destination marketing. Our forest byways program receives some funding through the DOT, Federal Lands Highways Division programs for those roads also classified as “forest highways.” When our forest byways are cross designated under a State Scenic Byways program, or elevated as one of DOT’s 126 America’s Byways®, they are also eligible for federal aid grants; such as marketing assistance or interpretive planning. About 25 percent of our forest byways do not qualify for any of these federal aid grants. All of our forest byways are eligible for some transportation planning assistance through Federal Lands Highways Division.

The Chief’s National Forest Scenic Byways program continues to be an important catalyst for collaboration to build community awareness of the intrinsic values inherent in our public landscapes.

Here are some examples:

• We have initiated work with National Geographic Society, Center for Sustainable Destinations, to protect scenic corridors, cultural landscapes, and promote geo-tourism conservation in Montana.
• We have integrated byways with resource management objectives; such as fuels reduction work for fire safe communities recently completed along the Peter Norbeck Scenic Byway corridor in South Dakota.
• We are collaborating with Shasta Cascades Wonderland Association in northern California to market local destinations for heritage and wildlife tourism and to pilot the idea of back-country touring routes off National and State byways.
• We are working to integrate our Nature-watch wildlife viewing sites into the Washington State Tourism Office and Scenic Byways website itineraries.

It is our vision that planning and marketing America’s Byways® could be inclusive of these forest byways. This would allow the federal partners greater resources to collaborate with our local and state partners to create a multiple tier system of routes eligible for national byways grants. The inclusion of these highly scenic and historically important forest routes on federal lands would greatly enhance the overall collection of America’s Byways® and be more representative of this country’s rich opportunities for scenic touring

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