WildEarth Guardians

Thursday, May 5, 2005
A quick analysis of the Bush Administration's final rule to replace the Roadless Area Conservation Rule with a State petition pr

This analysis is based on the final rule and Federal Register notice supplementary text posted on the Forest Service website this afternoon. The rule will go into effect as soon as it is published in the Federal Register.
Contact: WildEarth Guardians

The Bush rule entirely eliminates the protections provided by the Roadless Area Conservation Rule, which was adopted by the Clinton Administration in January 2001. Without the Roadless Rule’s restrictions, management of roadless areas will revert to the management direction contained in local forest management plans. Nationwide, forest plans allow road building in 34 million acres of inventoried roadless areas, or about 59 percent of the 58.5 million roadless acres. Thus, most roadless areas will be vulnerable to new road construction for logging, energy development, and other commodity uses under the Bush rule.

Read the analysis by Mike Anderson, The Wilderness Society (PDF)