May 30 2009
National forest roadless rule revived — sort of
I’ve you’ve lost track of the administrative and legal status of the infamous national forest “roadless rule,” you’re not alone. The Obama administration has effectively reinstated it — sort of — for a year while they figure things out. Here’s the lede from the Associated Press article as published in yesterday’s online Flathead Beacon . . .
The Obama administration is ordering a one-year moratorium on most road-building and other development on about 50 million acres of remote national forests.
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack issued a directive Thursday reinstating for one year most of a Clinton-era ban against new road construction and development in national forests. The 2001 rule banned road-building and logging in more than 58 million acres of remote national forests, mostly in the West.
Conflicting court decisions issued since then have left the so-called roadless rule’s legal status in doubt.
Read the entire article . . .