STUDY DETAILS STATE'S LOSS OF WILDERNESS IN 2 DECADES.

Byline: David Greenberg Daily News Staff Writer

California has lost 675,000 acres of wilderness to development and industry the past two decades, with the largest chunk being 130,000 acres in the Los Padres National Forest, a study released Wednesday says.

The 340-page report by the California Wilderness Coalition details the forests where logging, mining, development and recreation have taken their toll. And according to the environmental group, Los Padres - which stretches across Ventura County, and into Los Angeles and Santa Barbara counties - has the dubious distinction of being the most degraded forest in the state.

``It's the worst of the worst,'' said Paul Spitler, executive director of the coalition, based in Davis. ``Statewide, we're watching our forest legacy vanish before our very eyes. We've lost an area almost the size of Yosemite National Park in the last 20 years alone. And it's simply time to protect California's last wild areas.''

The report contends that the U.S. Forest Service has not developed an adequate policy to protect the state's 3.8 million acres of unprotected road-free land.

Some 14 million acres of wilderness overseen by the Forest and Park services, as well as the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, already have been protected by Congress from development, excavation and recreation activity except for hiking trails.

While 476,000 acres of Los Padres are under congressional protection, an additional 479,000 road-free acres remain unprotected, he said.

Environmentalists claim the Forest Service has damaged the area by constructing roadways for all-terrain vehicles, three-wheel motorbikes and dirt bikes.

``You have an active off-road-vehicle community down there, probably more organized than any other place in California,'' Spitler said. ``Through the years, (the public has) encouraged the Forest Service to punch dozens of trails into once roadless areas.

Once you get a route that's popular, they tend to (go) off route and carve their own routes into the landscape,'' he said.

While stopping short of calling the situation critical, Forest Service regional spokesman Matt Mathes said his office is aware of the concerns and has not constructed roads in unprotected California forests for two years.

``We in the U.S. Forest Service are in agreement with a lot of what California Wilderness Coalition said,'' Mathes said. ``We've sort of seen society's shift toward wanting more protection for national forests in California, and we're trying to accommodate that.

Our intent is to keep the roadless areas in as pristine condition as possible.''

Furthermore, Mike Dombeck, head of the Forest Service, last January proposed a nationwide halt to road construction - a decision on the plan is expected to be made soon.

The coalition's report, titled ``Two Decades of Destruction,'' took a year to complete at a cost of $20,000.

The report is the first detailed study of the state's 6.3 million acres of road-free land since the Forest Service conducted an inventory of national parklands in 1979, and it focuses on areas of at least 5,000 acres.