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Jim: jdipeso@rep.org
(253) 740-2066 / 2009
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Another Twist in the Roadless Areas
Road
May 29, 2009
Remember
national forest roadless areas?
A decade ago - has it been that long? - it was the biggest issue in
enviro land. Hundreds of hearings, thousands of comment letters, and
millions of e-mail alerts crowded into our awareness to support an end
to commercial logging and road-building on some 58 million acres of
national forest lands that are largely unroaded but lack wilderness
protection.
Rules adopted by the Clinton and Bush administrations went into the
litigation maw. The current bottom line: about 45 percent of the
roadless areas are protected, while the remainder are in limbo while
the court cases play out.
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack has called a one-year "timeout." Any
roads proposed to be built in roadless areas would require his personal
approval. The timeout is designed to give the Obama administration and
Congress a chance to work out a permanent policy for roadless lands.
The latest roadless news played a faint second fiddle to climate change
and the emergence of the Waxman-Markey climate magnum opus from the
House Energy and Commerce Committee.
The issue has not diminished in importance, however. The administration
and congressional leaders won't frame it this way, but protecting
roadless areas is conservative stewardship par excellence.
The national forests face a multi-billion-dollar maintenance tab for
thousands of miles of logging roads. Engorging the federal deficit
further in order to build more roads would be the height of fiscal
madness.
Roadless forests are source areas for clean drinking water that supply
60 million Americans. In addition, they provide fish and wildlife
habitat, air filtration, carbon storage, and low-impact recreation
opportunities. Roadless areas are a benchmark allowing ecologists to
compare wild with managed forests.
Protecting roadless areas is the closest thing to a no-brainer that
exists in the resource stewardship arena. It's time to end the
uncertainty and give these wild forests permanent protection.
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