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Roadless plan upheld Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.sltrib.com/2002/Dec/12142002/nation_w/11288.asphttp://www.sltrib.com/2002/Dec/12142002/nation_w/11288.asp
'Roadless' Plan Upheld, for Now
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
A federal appeals court on Thursday lifted an injunction from an Idaho district judge that suspended the Clinton administration's "roadless rule," which banned logging and road construction on a third of national forest lands.
The rule was to take effect in May 2001, but was stopped by U.S. District Judge Edward Lodge in response to a lawsuit filed by the state of Idaho, the Kootenai Indian tribe of Idaho and logging interests.
The administrative rule virtually banned road building or other development in roadless parcels of 5,000 acres or more -- a total of 59 million acres, or 2 percent of the nation's land mass. In Utah, the roadless rule would ban roadbuilding on about 4 million acres of national forests.
Uninformed Debate: The Idaho judge said the Clinton rule was hurried through the administrative process without informed debate.
After the Bush administration declined to appeal Lodge's decision, environmental groups intervened and persuaded a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to order Lodge to lift the injunction.
It is was unclear this week whether the Bush administration will activate the Roadless Rule plan, according to the U.S. Forest Service, which has changed its approach to land management since Clinton left office.
Mark Rey, the Bush administration official who oversees the Forest Service, is a former lobbyist for the timber industry, which opposes the roadless rule.
Idaho Gov. Dirk Kempthorne said he was disappointed by the ruling and has asked the state Attorney General's office to review the decision.
"While the court did agree with several claims Idaho made in its original lawsuit, its conclusions are baffling and yet again put the livelihood of working families in Idaho and throughout the West at risk," Kempthorne said.
Decision Applauded: Conservation groups applauded the ruling.
"It's our read that the Clinton-era roadless rule goes into effect, we have roadless area protection and after all this time, there will not be logging and road building in roadless areas," said John McCarthy, policy director for the Idaho Conservation League.
The Wilderness Society's regional director, Craig Gehrke, said the Forest Service was on the verge of approving 63,000 acres in southeastern Idaho's Caribou National Forest. The court's decision will stop that action, he said.
"Unless you have a national policy for roadless protection that goes down to forest-by-forest, you're going to see a loss of those wilderness areas," Gehrke said.
Project Proposals: The court decision came a day after Bush proposed speeding up environmental reviews for forest thinning projects to reduce the threat of wildfires. Two of the projects will occur in the Dixie National Forest in southernwestern Utah.
Lawson LeGate, Utah-based regional representative for the Sierra Club, said the Bush decision is a contrast to the Clinton rule, which was subjected to "the biggest public comment process in U.S. history.
"People support protecting roadless areas. It's way past time to get on with doing the job," LeGate said.
The Forest Service has recently been studying the roadless rule and "working toward developing a rule that would stand up in court," Forest Service spokeswoman Heidi Valetkevitch said Thursday.
The appellate court's decisions generally do not become final for about a month to allow for fresh appeals.
The Idaho case is one of about a half-dozen challenges of the roadless rule that had been held up by the 9th Circuit. Now, these cases will likely move forward.
Ruling 2-1, the San Francisco-based appeals court said the tribe, the logging industry and snowmobile groups were not irreparably harmed by the rules.
"Unlike the resource destruction that attends development, and that is bound to have permanent repercussions, restrictions on forest development and human intervention can be removed if later proved to be more harmful than helpful," Judge Ronald Gould wrote.
In dissent, Judge Andrew Kleinfeld said the roadless rule increases fire dangers by making remote areas less accessible, and should be blocked.
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Tribune reporter Brent Israelsen contributed to this story.
© Copyright 2002, The Salt Lake Tribune.
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