FORESTS: Timber industry, Republicans hail district judge's decision.
By MATTHEW DALY
The Associated Press
(Published: August 3, 2003)
The Clinton-era policy, which blocks
development on nearly a third of national forests, was struck down last month by
a federal judge, who said officials had improperly designated wilderness areas.
The decision in a Wyoming case, which is
subject to appeal, prevents the rule from being applied in any of the 38 states
that have designated roadless areas. The rule had blocked road building and
other development in 58.5 million acres of remote forests, mostly in the West.
The July 14 ruling by U.S. District Judge Clarence Brimmer was the most serious among several setbacks suffered by the roadless rule in recent days.
A day after the decision, the Bush administration formally proposed exempting the nation's two largest federal forests from the roadless policy. The plan would settle a lawsuit brought by Alaska and allow logging and other development in nearly half a million acres of the vast Tongass and Chugach forests, considered by many the crown jewels of the National Forest System.
Two days later, the Republican-controlled House defeated an amendment that would have blocked the Alaska settlement and prevented the Bush administration from allowing governors to request exemptions to the roadless rule.
The timber industry and Republican lawmakers hailed the developments, saying that commonsense land management appeared to be prevailing over what they called the environmental extremism of the Clinton administration.
"The roadless rule would arbitrarily fence off land and throw away the keys," said Rep. Richard Pombo, R-Calif., chairman of the House Resources Committee, which oversees land use issues.
Pombo called the roadless rule a "don't touch" management plan that also would block recreation activities and prohibit needed forest maintenance to prevent catastrophic wildfires.
Environmentalists describe the moves as a threat that could permanently alter the landscape of the nation's forests.
"Ultimately the fate of the roadless rule is not resting in the hands of the federal courts; rather it is in the hands of the Bush administration," said Robert Vandermark, co-director of the Heritage Forest Campaign, an environmental advocacy group.
He and other critics called the Tongass proposal proof that the administration is not living up to its public statements to maintain roadless protections for national forests.
"The timber industry is getting what they paid for," said Tiernan Sittenfeld of the U.S. Public Interest Research Group. "Thanks to the Bush administration the places where Americans hike, hunt, and fish are on track to be destroyed."
Mark Rey, the agriculture undersecretary who oversees the Forest Service, said critics were, as usual, overreacting.
The Tongass settlement would maintain existing protections on 95 percent of the 17 million-acre forest, Rey said, with only about 300,000 acres opened to development.
"I think the ... National Wildlife Federation ought to make me a conservationist of the year," said Rey, a former timber industry lobbyist who has frequently done battle with environmental groups.
Not only has the administration retained the roadless rule, Rey said, it has tried to ensure that it will not be subject to the repeated court challenges that have marked the Clinton policy.
Brimmer's ruling was the second injunction issued by a federal judge against the roadless rule. The first, in 2001, was overturned in December by the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The current case is before the Denver-based 10th Circuit.
"We didn't scrap it. We could easily have done that if we wanted to," Rey said, noting that the rule was never enacted by Congress and was imposed just days before President Clinton left office.
Rey said the plan to allow governors to exclude some national forests in their states from the roadless rule was part of an effort to engage states as partners in managing forests. As a practical matter, most states are likely to leave the rule intact, he said. Governors in just three states -- Montana, Wyoming and Idaho -- have said they intend to seek a waiver.
But critics see the state exemptions as a loophole to water down the Clinton plan.
"We don't run state parks, and we don't believe governors should run national forests," said Rep. Jay Inslee, D-Wash., who sponsored the failed amendment blocking the exemptions.
FOR MORE about the Forest Service roadless policy, visit www.roadless.fs.fed.us/