Roadless Protection                                          

After years of the Bush administration's efforts to overturn the Roadless Rule, we now have the Obama administration recognizing the value of roadless lands.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Elizabeth Laporte (US District Court -- Northern District of CA) issued a decision on the roadless case September 19, 2006, reinstating the 2001 Roadless Rule.  To read the entire decision, click here.

The Roadless Area Conservation Rule was adopted by the Forest Service in 2001 after a lengthy and inclusive public process.  The Bush Administration overturned that policy.  While they were savvy enough not to attack this very popular rule during his first term, making statements such as Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman's, “This administration is committed to providing roadless protection for our national forests,” the Bush Administration later withdrew the Rule, which protected 58.5 million acres of National Forests across the country.

They set up a system whereby each state that wanted to protect roadless areas on National Forests within that state was required to undergo costly and time-consuming efforts on a state-by-state basis.  Governors jahad to petition for roadless protection for these lands.  But even if a governor was willing to undergo the process to petition for roadless protection for certain national forests within his/her state, there was no guarantee the recommendations woul be accepted.  The Bush administration could still have decided not to provide any protection for roadless areas, even after the states have jumped through all the new hoops.

The current Roadless Area Conservation Rule affects 58.5 million acres of federal forest land, which amounts to 2% of the land base of this country and 31% of the land base of the Forest Service.  You used to be able to go to the Forest Service website to check out the number of acres of inventoried roadless areas in your state and to view maps of each of the federal forests in your state and see where the inventoried roadless areas are located.  That information was removed from the Forest Service website during the Bush era.

As the Forest Service website used to say, “Inventoried roadless areas possess social and ecological values and characteristics that are becoming scarce in our Nation’s increasingly developed landscape.  Protecting air and water quality, biodiversity, and opportunities for personal renewal are highly valued qualities of roadless areas.  Conserving inventoried roadless areas leaves a legacy of natural areas for future generations.  The Roadless Area Conservation Rule limits or prohibits activities that would most negatively affect these values.” 

To learn more about the latest action, go to www.earthjustice.org/news/display.html?ID=992 and http://www.ourforests.org/.

John Loomis  and Robert Richardson, in their 2000 publication “Economic Values of Protecting Roadless Areas in the United States,”  “found that in their current condition, the 42 million acres of roadless lands can be expected to provide almost $600 million in recreation benefits each year, more than $280 in passive use values, and nearly 24,000 jobs.”

As the Forest Service web site used to say, “Inventoried roadless areas possess social and ecological values and characteristics that are becoming scarce in our Nation’s increasingly developed landscape.  Protecting air and water quality, biodiversity, and opportunities for personal renewal are highly valued qualities of roadless areas.  Conserving inventoried roadless areas leaves a legacy of natural areas for future generations.  The Roadless Area Conservation Rule limits or prohibits activities that would most negatively affect these values.”  That is sadly no longer true.

Click here to read what county officials say about roadless protection.

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Masthead photo credits left to right--Rolf Sklar, Curtis J. Carley FWS, NOAA

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