By spending more to get less out. Roads are there to get as much out as possible in the shortest amount of time, so it is efficient for the logging operation, it is inefficient for the preservation of an intact forest biome.
Roads alter the way organisms interact, creating boundary ecosystems that separated by 36 or more feet of sterile ground. Some speices will not cross, some will over populate...There are multiple chapters in Eco.Sci, textbooks on the topic of fragmentation.
The other alternative is to plant in pioneer species that will close up the disturbed area as fast as possible.
The question, form a conservation point of view is- do we use it now for our purposes, or save some for our grandkid's grandkids? This leads me into the timber industries concept of "overmature", they want to harvest large old tree because it may be degrading from a board-foot yield perspective; giving no consideration to the genetic yield it may provide to the stand for generations to come. Like a large old lobster, an ancient tree produces more seeds then one with a an optimal diameter for CuBF.
I am not an eco-freak, I have a strong belief in true sustainability. But sustainability means that we need to keep a deep genetic pool in a strong biome if we want it to survive our bumbling along over the past few centuries. The concept of generations of families being loggers is not sustainable, we need a few people to become stewards of the land, and maybe a small cadre of skilled fallers that will be able to move across the country like the wild-land fire-fighters do.
