Issue:
The Department of Agriculture, National Forest Service has recently proposed reversing the rule protecting national forests from additional roadbuilding.

Background:
In January 2001, the Roadless Area Conservation Rule was issued to tie together the nation's patchwork of local forest management practices and to protect 58.5 million acres of wild national forest land from roadbuilding, most logging, oil and gas development and mining. With more than one-half of America's national forests already open to logging, mining, and drilling, the rule was intended to preserve the last third of undeveloped forests as a home for wildlife, a haven for recreation, and a heritage for future generations. The rule was enacted following more than two decades of broad debate and three years of official review and public participation. Over 600 public meetings and hearings were held on each National Forest and in each Forest Service region to date. The rule received over 2 million official public comments, 95% of which supported the strongest possible protection for all of our nation's remaining roadless areas. More Americans took part in this rule-making process than in any other federal rule making in history.

Just weeks after the Roadless Rule was signed into law by President Clinton, the Bush administration took office and suspended implementation of the rule. On July 12, 2004 the Bush administration announced that it would move forward with a new Roadless Area Conservation Rule. The new rule would overturn roadless area protection for the almost 60 million acres that was put in place by the Clinton administration in 2001. This follows on the heels of the Bush administration's exemption of Alaska's Tongass National Forest from roadless area protection on December 23, 2003.

RtE Position:
On November 15, 2004, RtE joined together with the Southern Rockies Conservation Association in opposing the proposed rule modification for the following reasons:

Roadless areas are extremely valuable for a variety of resources, especially protecting biodiversity.

Many inventoried roadless areas are not currently protected from damaging activities.

Conservation of roadless areas is consistent with, and necessary for, full realization of the Forest Service's multiple use mandate.

The proposed rule would do nothing to protect roadless areas and would thus perpetuate the controversy over their management.

The proposed rule improperly transfers responsibility for analysis and recommendations for management of roadless areas to the states.

The process for petitioning to protect roadless areas would be cumbersome.

The Forest Service would have total discretion to reject any petition.

The proposed petitioning process is unnecessary.

The Forest Service must conduct public hearings on the proposed rule and extend the comment period.

The Forest Service must update the Environmental Impact Statement for the new proposed rule.

Links:

RtE Protests Rule Change

Rock the Earth Letter of March 6, 2005, protesting forest rule rollbacks.

SCRA Roadless Rule Letter

November 15, 2004 Comment letter concerning the proposed Roadless Rule.

2004 Roadless Rule

2004 Proposed Rule Regarding inventoried roadless areas in National Forests.

USFS Interim Directive

Interim Directive concerning inventoried roadless areas.

Roadless Rule FAQ

Frequently Asked questions about the roadless rule (NRDC)

Roadless Area Conservation Rule (2001 Roadless Rule)

http://frwebgate3.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/waisgate.cgi?WAISdocID=08219422901+0+0+0&WAISaction=retrieve