National Forest Highways (NFH)

[bugo]

The older Arkansas county highway maps showed some highways that go through national forests marked as "NFH."  The map legend said that NFH means "National Forest Highway."  Was this a national system of highways?  Did other states have NFHs?  What's the difference between a plain old highway and a NFH?

[mcdonaat]

Not sure of Arkansas, but Louisiana has a few forest routes that travel around in the national forests.

[roadfro]

Someone can correct me if I am wrong, but I believe these are roads labeled within individual national forests. I.e. not a national numbering pattern like U.S. Highways with no repeated numbers.

National Forest Highways are often used to access recreational areas (campgrounds, etc.), and can also be fire access routes. I don't believe they have design standards at all--many that I've seen are barely wide enough for two vehicles to pass each other in opposite directions (if that), and they are not necessarily paved.

[sp_redelectric]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forest_Highway

http://www.wfl.fhwa.dot.gov/programs/plh/fh/

Basically they can either be signed routes under U.S. Forest Service jurisdiction, or a category of highways by the FHWA that serve public forests, and can include USFS routes as well as county and state highways.

[hbelkins]

Kentucky definitely has them. They are maintained by the National Forest Service and generally carry the designation "FS xxx" where "xxx" is the number of the route. I have seen a few signed with route markers but most are not. The ones I've seen are white on brown in the pentagon shape typically seen for county routes, with the script "National" above the number and "Forest" below it. I don't think I have a photo.

[bugo]

That's not what I'm talking about.  I'm talking about state maintained highways that run through national forests.

[NE2]

These were a funding designation. States with national forests got extra federal funding for routes through the forests. As with other federal aid numbers they were per state. Here's Washington's system:

[hbelkins]

That's not what I'm talking about.  I'm talking about state maintained highways that run through national forests.

In that case, I would say that every state has them. Kentucky has every category of state route (interstate, parkway, US and KY) running through national forest. I live within the boundaries of the Daniel Boone National Forest, but I don't think there is any federal government-owned land near me.

[Mapmikey]

Virginia has/had these.  On county maps there were labeled "Forest Highway Numbers" (1936 - no concurrent labeling with primary or SRs) or  "Approved Forest Hwy" (1958 - mostly concurrent with SRs and also primary routes).

Official Maps in the 1940s-50s labeled these as "State Forestry Roads" and also had something called "Forest Development Road"

Searching the CTB archives the phrase "Forestry Road Allocation" appears in 1930 and the CTB was approving "Forest Highway System" routes in 1931-32.

"Forest Highway Funds" appears in CTB Minutes up to 1971 and Forest Road funding is implied into the 1990s.  The phrase "Forest HIghway Agreement" appears in the Aug 1997 CTB. 

None of the above references explains what any of it means.

Mapmikey

[sp_redelectric]

That's not what I'm talking about.  I'm talking about state maintained highways that run through national forests.

OK.

http://www.wfl.fhwa.dot.gov/programs/plh/fh/designation.htm

So in Oregon we have Oregon 22 running through the Siuslaw National Forest.  As does Oregon 130 that connects 22 with 101.

A short portion of U.S. 101 also runs through the Siuslaw Forest.

Oregon 18 itself does not as it runs through the Van Duzer Corridor (which is managed by Oregon State Parks) but the Siuslaw National Forest exists just north and south of the corridor.

Oregon 229 briefly enters the Siuslaw National Forest.

Oregon 34 also runs through the Siuslaw National Forest.  As does Oregon 36 and Oregon 126.

I-84 runs through the Mt. Hood National Forest (in fact Multnomah Falls, one of Oregon's largest tourist destinations, is a Forest Service - NOT State Parks - facility).  And thus the Historic Columbia River Highway would also run through the Mt. Hood National Forest.  As does Oregon 35 and U.S. 26, and then Timberline Highway which connects the Timberline Ski Resort with U.S. 26.  Oregon 224 also enters - and then ends - in the Mt. Hood National Forest.

Oregon 22, U.S. 20, and Oregon 126 pass through the Willamette National Forest.

And that's just the northwestern part of the state...