1. Short title This Act may be cited as the Roadless Area Conservation Act of 2018 . 2. Findings and purpose (a) In general Congress finds that— (1) there is a compelling need to establish national protection for inventoried roadless areas of the National Forest System in order to protect the unique social and ecological values of those irreplaceable resources; (2) roadless areas protect healthy watersheds and the numerous benefits of healthy watersheds, which include— (A) providing the setting for many forms of outdoor recreation; (B) ensuring a supply of clean water for domestic, agricultural, and industrial uses; (C) providing drinking water to tens of millions of citizens of the United States; and (D) helping maintain abundant and healthy fish and wildlife populations and habitats; (3) maintaining roadless areas in a relatively undisturbed condition— (A) saves downstream communities millions of dollars in water filtration costs; and (B) is crucial to preserve the flow of affordable, clean water to a growing population; (4) the protection of roadless areas can maintain biological strongholds and refuges for many imperiled species by halting the ongoing fragmentation of the landscape into smaller and smaller parcels of land divided by road corridors; (5) roadless areas conserve native biodiversity by serving as a bulwark against the spread of nonnative invasive species; (6) roadless areas provide important backcountry fish and game habitat, creating opportunities for hunting and commercial and sport fishing; (7) roadless areas provide unparalleled opportunities for outdoor recreation, including hiking, camping, picnicking, wildlife viewing, hunting, fishing, cross-country skiing, canoeing, mountain-biking, and similar activities; (8) while roadless areas may have many wilderness-like attributes, unlike wilderness areas, the use of mechanized means of travel is allowed in many roadless areas