Forest Service Publishes New ‘Roadless’ Rule

USDA Secretary Ann Veneman on July 12 announced the Administration’s new proposal to conserve roadless areas in national forests and grasslands. The Clinton Administration finalized its roadless rule in January 2001, but in June 2003 a federal court struck down the Clinton rule, concluding that it violated the National Environmental Policy Act and the Wilderness Act.  NCBA will provide comments on the proposal, and following evaluation of comments, the Forest Service will issue a final rule. 

Environmentalists called the proposal as “a giveaway to industry.” House Resources Committee Chairman Richard Pombo (R-Calif.) said “the only industry that has benefited from these supposed giveaways is the environmental scare-peddling and fundraising industry. The size and scope of this special interest has increased dramatically, at the expense of honest Americans who have lost good jobs in the resource sector.”  Pombo said the new rule will inject common sense and local control into the rulemaking. “Forest management decisions should be made at the state level by people who know individual forest conditions best, not by bureaucrats surrounded by concrete in Washington.”