Once again, our wild forests are at risk. In 2005, after the Bush
Administration repealed the historic 2001 Roadless Rule, the Forest
Service said they would "provide interim protection to roadless
areas," while they decided on the ultimate fate of our wild forests.
But instead of fulfilling this responsibility and protecting our forests,
the Forest Service is moving forward with proposals to allow logging, oil
drilling, and road building in our roadless areas.
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In a September 2005 New York
Times letter-to-the-editor, Mark Rey, Under Secretary of Agriculture, wrote,
"We are providing interim protection to roadless areas, pending the
development of state-specific rules provided for in our 2005 rulemaking."
Sadly, that is not happening. A Heritage Forests Campaign report, "Broken
Ground," analyzes the Federal Register, news articles, and the Forest
Service's own website to reveal projects in the pipeline, including:
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Logging and road construction in Alaska, Minnesota, New Hampshire, Oregon,
Vermont, Washington, and Wyoming
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Oil and gas drilling in Colorado, Nevada, and Utah
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Roads, phosphate exploration, and mining in Idaho's Sage Creek Roadless
Area
Since taking office, the Bush administration has steadily undermined the 2001
Roadless Area Conservation Rule, an initiative to protect the last unroaded
58.5 million acres of national forests from most logging, road-building, and
other development. A substitute policy was put in place last year, which created
a process requiring governors to petition the Forest Service if they wished
for roadless protection in their states.
States are doing everything they can to assure these areas will be protected.
Attorneys general of six states have joined in a lawsuit against Bush's
rollback and several governors have filed, or have announced their intentions to
file, petitions for the complete protection of roadless areas in their states,
even as they voice their opposition to the administration's uncertain process.
Outdoor recreation companies like Patagonia and North Face said in a letter to
U.S. Forest Service chief Dale Bosworth, "In order to ensure that no actions
are taken which might preclude a full range of options for protection of these
areas, we write to request that the Forest Service agree to avoid proposing
projects in inventoried roadless areas that would alter the roadless qualities
of the areas, and to halt and withdraw all such projects under development."
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