Bush Proposal Chops Down Roadless Rule

By J.R. Pegg

WASHINGTON, DC, July 13, 2004 (ENS) - A Bush administration proposal unveiled on Monday would give individual states the right to exempt national forests from a federal rule that bans roadbuilding and logging in some 58 million acres of remote and unspoiled public land.

Environmentalists called the move a dramatic setback for the protection of the national forests and part of a concerted effort by the administration to give away the nation's natural resources to corporate interests.

Sierra Club Executive Director Carl Pope said the proposal "is one more plank in the Bush administration's platform of deciding National Forest management based on the desires of timber industry executives."

The Bush plan would force states to petition the federal government to enforce the roadless rule - in effect giving states the right to block the federal regulation and broad authority over the future of the remaining remote areas of the national forests.

U.S. Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman said the proposal is necessary to move the nation beyond the legal morass that has entangled the roadless rule, which has been a source of controversy since it was put into effect in January 2001 during the final days of the Clinton administration.

The rule bans roadbuilding within some 58 million acres - or one third - of the national forests for commercial activities, but does allow new roads if needed to fight fires or to protect public health and safety.

Supporters say the rule provides vital protection for some of the nation's last remaining wild places and contend it is one of the most popular and important conservation initiatives in the nation's history.

Passions run high over protection for roadless areas, such as this tract within Montana's Kootenai National Forest. (Photo courtesy U.S. Forest Service )

Decisions have come down on both sides of the issue, yet the Bush administration is convinced the rule is too broad and restrictive.

"The prospect of endless lawsuits represents neither progress, nor certainty for communities," said Veneman, who rejected criticism that the plan rolls back protection for roadless areas.

"Our announcements today illustrate our commitment to working closely with the nation's governors to meet the needs of local communities, and to maintaining the undeveloped character of the most pristine areas of the National Forest System," the agriculture secretary said on Monday.

Although there are 39 states with inventoried roadless areas on national forest lands within their boundaries, some 97 percent of these areas lie within a dozen Western states - Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Wyoming.

"This is an opportunity for the states to have input," Veneman told reporters. "It does not give them sole control."

But environmentalists say the proposal completely guts the roadless rule and gives states unprecedented authority over the future of the national forests.

"State governors should not be able to override the American people's interest in protecting these forests, any more than they can override the American people's interest in protecting Yellowstone or the Grand Canyon," said Tim Preso, a Montana based staff attorney for the environmental law firm Earthjustice.

Under the proposal, states must petition for protection of roadless areas within 18 months of the release of the final rule.

"The idea that many governors would want to jump head first into the political snake pit of managing the national forests in their states is laughable," said Philip Clapp, president of the National Environmental Trust. "Besides, the timber industry has invested heavily for years in the campaigns of governors with the largest national and state forests, giving almost equally to Republicans and Democrats."

The administration has already rolled back roadless protections in the Tongass National Forest, a move that will logging and new roads in some 300,000 acres of the forest. (Photo courtesy U.S. Forest Service)

It is not just the wilderness values that are at risk from the proposal, according to Jim DiPeso of REP America, the national grassroots organization of Republicans for environmental protection.

"Of all the resources that unroaded wild forests provide for Americans, none is as valuable as fresh, clean water," he said. "Weakening protection of these forests is like raiding a college savings account for vacation money. It is not wise and it is certainly not conservative."

Advocates of the Bush proposal see it as a way to potentially jumpstart rural Western communities and as a return of local input over forest management.

Idaho Governor Dirk Kempthorne, a vocal critic of the roadless rule, said he never objected to the concept, rather to how the regulation was developed.

"The old rule said in essence that Washington, DC, decisionmakers know better than those of us in Idaho what should work for us," Kempthorne told reporters.

Kempthorne, a Republican, said the Bush proposal is "the way federal land management should work."

Idaho is home to more than 9.3 million acres of inventoried roadless acres within the national forests, including this mountainous roadless area in the Boise National Forest. (Photo courtesy U.S. Forest Service)

Under the proposal, a governor could request that roadless areas in his or her state be protected, but a state-by-state rulemaking would only go forward if the agriculture secretary agrees. It appears that governors could even ask that some or all of the roadless areas in their state receive less protection than existed before the Roadless Rule, said Marty Hayden, legislative director at Earthjustice, a nonprofit, public interest law firm.

"Without national, legal protections for roadless areas, we can expect this administration to swing the door wide open for governors who support the timber industry’s desire to squeeze the last dollar out of our national forests," Hayden said.

Given the reaction of the conservation community it is likely the proposal will cause more confrontation - and probably more litigation - rather than the cooperation all sides say they desire.

Critics say the Bush administration ignored a clear opportunity to have the Supreme Court settle the dispute over the roadless rule's legality.

Last July a Wyoming federal judge enjoined the rule in Wyoming after ruling it illegally created wilderness areas in violation of the process set up by Congress through the Wilderness Act.

This ruling conflicted with a U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that reversed a similar injunction placed on the rule by an Idaho District Court.

The Bush administration decided not to appeal the Wyoming decision to the Supreme Court and asked the appellate court not to accept an appeal of the decision by conservationists.

The proposed rule will be published in the Federal Register this week and is available here.

The Forest Service will accept comments on the proposal for 60 days.

Written comments on the proposed rule may be mailed to: Content Analysis Team, ATTN: Roadless State Petitions, USDA Forest Service, P.O. Box 221090, Salt Lake City, UT 84122; faxed to 801-517-1014; or emailed to statepetitionroadless@fs.fed.us. Comments also may be submitted from: http://www.regulations.gov.

The Forest Service will issue a final rule after it evaluates public comments.