US Forest Service slashes protection for "roadless" national forests

Charlottesville - In a move that defies widespread public opinion and scientific evidence, the US Forest Service is today finalizing a policy that jeopardizes America's most wild and scenic national forest lands by eliminating the publicly popular Roadless Area Conservation Rule of 2001. Agriculture Under Secretary Mark Rey has scheduled a 1 p.m. press conference to announce the change.

The policy throws open the fate of the nation's 58.5 million roadless acres to politics by replacing the 2001 rule with a state petition process that essentially eliminates federal protections against road building, commercial logging and mining. Under the petition process, state governors would have to undertake a lengthy process to petition the Secretary of Agriculture, and the Secretary would have to agree, to prevent development of the roadless areas in their states.

"Under this policy, eight years of protection for our last, best wild places would evaporate. Taxpayers, outdoor recreationists, and wildlife are the losers here -- the timber and mining industries are the winners," said David Carr, director of SELC's National Forests Project. "These roadless areas are part of America's natural heritage, owned by all Americans. They deserve the strong safeguards of the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule."

In Virginia, which has the most roadless acreage of any state east of the Mississippi, Governor Mark Warner was one of the first governors in the country to voice opposition to a change in the rule. In an August 2003 letter to the Secretary of Agriculture, he wrote: "We understand the administration is planning to propose state-by-state exemptions to the National Roadless Area Conservation Rule. We believe that approach is unnecessary given the current rule's reasonable exemptions. Such an approach would undermine the important national rule necessary to insure the conservation of roadless areas for the use of current and future generations."

Governor Easley of NC stated that the new rule " has the potential to place an undue burden on our state agencies without providing any benefit to North Carolina's resources." 8/16/04 letter to Sec. of Agriculture.

Governor Bredesen of TN, expressing concern about the elimination of the 2001 rule, stated that roadless areas should be protected so that "the citizens of Tennessee can enjoy the clean air, clean water, wildlife habitat, and recreational activities of the Cherokee National Forest." 9/8/2004 letter to Sec. of Agriculture.

The conservation rule is particularly important for the South, Carr said. Roadless areas provide prime habitat for migratory songbirds, black bear, native trout, and many threatened and endangered species, and are the source of clean drinking water for scores of homes and communities. Currently, only 15% of the land in the nine Southern Appalachian national forests is identified by the U.S. Forest Service as roadless, well below the national average of 31%. Yet approximately half the nation's population lives within a day's drive of the Southern Appalachian national forests.

Without the conservation rule, more than 75%, or 555,000 acres, of the roadless acreage in the nine Southern Appalachian national forests would be immediately vulnerable to road building and commercial logging under existing management plans for those forests, Carr said. Future management plans could target the remaining roadless areas for development as well.

More than 2.5 million people - including well over 200,000 Southerners ( see below) - have supported the Roadless Conservation Rule, which prohibits road building, logging and other development in roadless areas while providing for certain activities to address fires, insects and public safety. Another 1.7 million Americans objected to the policy announced today in comments filed last fall.

The Southern Appalachian national forests already have 12,000 miles of roadway criss-crossing the 4.7 million acres, and a road-maintenance backlog exceeding $200 million. Governor Warner stated in a July 30, 2004 letter, "Building roads in these remote areas is fiscally irresponsible. Especially when Virginia's national forests already have 3000 miles of road and the agency does not have the budget to maintain those existing roads."

Inventoried Roadless Acres in the Southern Appalachian National Forests