Judge restores Clinton's 'Roadless Rule' By TERENCE CHEA, Associated Press Writer
Wed Sep 20, 11:53 PM ET
A federal judge on Wednesday reinstated the "Roadless Rule," a Clinton-era ban on road construction in nearly a third of national forests.
U.S. District Judge Elizabeth Laporte ruled that the Bush administration failed to conduct necessary environmental studies before making changes that allowed states to decide how to manage individual national forests.
The 2001 rule prohibits logging, mining and other development on 58.5 million acres in 38 states and Puerto Rico, but the Bush administration replaced it in May 2005 with a process that required governors to petition the federal government to protect national forests in their states.
Laporte sided with 20 environmental groups and four states — California, New Mexico, Oregon and Washington — that sued the U.S. Forest Service over the changes.
"This is fantastic news for millions of Americans who have consistently told the Forest Service that they wanted these last wild areas of public land protected," said Kristen Boyles, an attorney for Earthjustice, which represented the environmental groups.
The Bush administration was reviewing the ruling to decide on an appeal, said Dave Tenny, deputy undersecretary for the Department of Agriculture, which oversees the Forest Service.
Representatives of the timber industry denounced the decision, saying it would leave roadless areas vulnerable to catastrophic wildfires because firefighters could not access blazes in remote forests.
Chris West, vice president of the Portland-based American Forest Industry Council, said states should be allowed to decide how best to manage and protect their forests. West said, "This lawsuit and this decision is all about politics."
Despite the judge's ruling, logging would likely continue in two regions of Oregon — Mike's Gulch and Blackberry on the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest — where timber sales were approved after the rule was changed, said Mike Carrier, natural resources adviser to Gov. Ted Kulongoski.
Colorado Gov. Bill Owens criticized the ruling, saying a task force that takes citizens' input is the right way to manage the state's wilderness.
"It would be very unfortunate if we were to revert back to a rule established hastily without public input during the waning days of the Clinton administration," Owens said. "We simply should not have a federal magistrate in San Francisco unilaterally dictating natural resource policy for the entire country."
Laporte's ruling does not affect about 9.3 million acres of Alaska's Tongass National Forest, which is covered by a separate rule on road construction and other development.
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Associated Press Writer Jeff Barnard contributed to this report from Grants Pass, Ore. |
