Keep Them Roadless!
September 20, 2006:
Update: Judge Reinstates Original Roadless Rule Marking Huge Victory for Americans, Wild Forests
Background
The original Roadless Rule was a product of exhaustive scientific and legal analysis and the largest public involvement process in the history of the federal government. The Clinton Administration held over 600 public meetings around the nation and received more than one and a-half million comments, largely in favor of total protection for all 58.5 million acres of wild forests. The Bush Administration started their attack on this landmark forest protection literally the same day that President Bush took the oath of office in 2001. Since then the Bush Administration has worked to undermine longstanding forest protections for old growth and ancient forests in the Pacific Northwest, Giant Sequoia forests in the Sierra Nevadas, and the most remote wild forests in Alaska and all across the rest of the National Forest System. From policies that prioritize logging over community fire protection to proposals that sell-off National Forests, the Bush administration has worked to weaken or eliminate the core protections for America's wild forests.
According to the court (9/20/06), "Defendants are enjoined from taking any further action contrary to the Roadless Rule without undertaking environmental analysis consistent with this opinion." The court noted that in adopting the Rule which the court reinstated today, the Forest Service itself found that the Rule was "necessary to protect the social and ecological values and characteristics of . . . roadless areas from road construction . . . and timber harvesting activities. . . . Adoption of [the Roadless Rule] ensures that inventoried roadless areas will be managed in a manner that sustains their values now and for future generations."
The court found that in repealing the roadless rule, the Bush administration failed to comply with basic legal requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act and the Endangered Species Act: "this court concludes that the Forest Service failed adequately to consider the environmental and species impacts when it [repealed the Roadless Rule] in violation of the National Environmental Policy Act and the Endangered Species Act."
The court continued: "to conclude that a regulation that effects a major change in the way roadless areas in national forests are regulated nationwide from the prior regulation that it replaces does not constitute a repeal with potentially significant environmental effects would ignore reality."
In addition to repealing the Roadless Rule, the 2005 Bush State Petitions rule invited governors to submit petitions recommending management schemes for the National Forests in their states. Five states (Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, New Mexico, and California) have lodged such petitions, and all have called for protection for all roadless areas in their states. Other states, including Oregon and Colorado, are facing Bush administration plans to log or develop oil and gas in roadless areas.
Back to Roadless Rule index page.
Photo: Old-growth trees in the Tongass National Forest, Alaska. Betsy Goll/Sierra Club collection.
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