[pct-l] Last Straw...

[smashnationalism at yahoo.com (Shawn Loga)]

This is the last straw.  I can't take it anymore.  First, the Artic National Wildlife Refuge.  Now, this.  I really don't know what to do anymore.  I am lost.
 
With a heavy heart and a broken spirit, Shawn

 
Full article from the Chicago Tribune:
 
The Bush administration Thursday took sweeping action to open nearly 60 million acres--about one-third of national forest land--to new road construction, which in turn could lead to logging, mining and other commercial use of these previously protected areas.
-Chicago Tribune
 
Bush opens U.S. forests
Critics decry rule allowing new roads in a third of nation's woodlands

By Michael Kilian, Washington Bureau. "Forest Service roadless areas" list by the Associated Press
Published May 6, 2005

WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration Thursday took sweeping action to open nearly 60 million acres--about one-third of national forest land--to new road construction, which in turn could lead to logging, mining and other commercial use of these previously protected areas.

Although lawsuits are still pending over the issue, the plan undoes the "roadless rule" that President Bill Clinton ordered in 2001 during his last days in office. It had banned more road construction on 58.5 million acres of national forests, nearly all of them in Alaska and 11 other Western states.

In announcing the policy, Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns, whose department includes the U.S. Forest Service, praised it as cooperative, collaborative conservation. "Our actions today advance President Bush's commitment to cooperatively conserve inventoried roadless areas within our national forests," Johanns said. He added that his department "is committed to working closely with the nation's governors to meet the needs of our local communities while protecting and restoring the health and natural beauty of our national forests."

Conservation groups termed the move a mammoth step backward.

"Millions of acres of our last wild forests are now immediately at risk," said Robert Vandermark, director of the conservationist Heritage Forests Campaign, who noted that 386,000 miles of roads already exist in U.S. forest lands and that the Forest Service has a $10 billion maintenance backlog on them.

"This leave-no-tree-behind policy paves the way for increased logging and mining in much of the nation's last wild areas," he said.

Niel Lawrence, senior attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council, said, "The president has replaced the roadless rule with the `treeless rule.' He has deprived future generations of their birthright and national heritage."

Of the total area affected, road-building and subsequent commercial uses could be started immediately in 34.3 million acres because the Forest Service, which builds the roads, has already prepared management plans.

An additional 24.2 million acres could ultimately be opened to road construction and commercial development, but governors have 18 months to file petitions seeking to restore the "roadless rule" on sections of national forest in their states or to offer new plans to allow and manage commercial uses.

The states would have to work with the Forest Service and localities in drawing up any such plans and the Forest Service would have final say.

In a separate statement, the Agriculture Department said that Thursday's action would require the federal government to "work with states, tribes, local communities and the public through a process that is fair, open and responsive to local input and information."

In the past, federal conservation policies and initiatives have led to clashes with local politicians and interest groups that support commercial use of the forests to maintain jobs and tax bases.

Deb Callahan, president of the League of Conservation Voters, said the administration was "selling out to the logging and timber industry" and that Bush was opposing the will of the public on the roadless issue.

"To date, the Forest Service has received a record-breaking 4 million public comments in support of the rule," she said. "The rule also enjoys broad support among members of Congress, governors, local officials, businesses, hunters and anglers, scientists, economists and religious organizations."

The Natural Resources Defense Council's Lawrence argued that the petition process called for in the administration's initiative is pointless because ultimate authority over whether to allow roads and commercial exploitation remains with the administration.

"The `treeless rule' is about replacing real protections with a meaningless process," he said.

Logging and union worker interests applauded the move.

W. Henson Moore, president and chief executive of the American Forest and Paper Association, said the administration has crafted "a thoughtful, legal and effective plan."

"The courts struck down the Clinton-era rule," he said. "This new rule gives governors the opportunity to work with the Forest Service to identify special and unique places in their states and then create broadly supported plans for conservation and preservation."

Michael Draper, vice president of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters' Western Region and chairman of an umbrella group that represents 500,000 union workers, said, "The new rule returns the decisions that will guide management of the forests to the local level--to the people who live near the land and know it and its needs the best."

In announcing the action, the Agriculture Department said the new rule would remove legal uncertainties that have clouded the issue. In July 2003, a federal district court in Wyoming struck down the Clinton administration's widespread ban on more road construction in the forests. That decision was appealed to the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver, which heard arguments in the case earlier this week.

In 2001, in a separate lawsuit over the rules, logging interests won an injunction against the Clinton-era rule in an Idaho court, but that was overturned on appeal by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Thirty-eight states and Puerto Rico have national forest land at least marginally affected by the roadless rule, but 97 percent of the acreage lies within Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Wyoming.



		
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