Juneau Empire: Federal court upends Bush reversal on 'Roadless Rule

Source : Juneau Empire

U.S. Forest Service to research ruling's effects on Tongass

By Brittany Retherford

In a legal victory for environmentalists, a San Francisco federal court ruled Wednesday to reinstate the "Roadless Rule" - a measure that granted widespread protection to national forest lands in January 2001 and was later repealed by the Bush administration.

U.S. District Judge Elizabeth Laporte ruled Wednesday that in repealing the initial measure, the Bush administration violated federal law when it reversed Clinton's road ban without conducting the necessary environmental studies. President Clin- ton's Roadless Rule prohibited commercial logging, mining and other development on 58.5 million acres of national forest in 38 states and Puerto Rico.

Twenty conservation groups and four states that sued the federal government in 2005 welcomed the ruling, while repre- sentatives of the timber industry denounced the decision.

Yet ramifications of the decision remain uncertain for the Tongass National Forest.

This is because the rule harkens back to its original form, in which the Tongass was temporarily exempted, said Jackie Groce, a U.S. Forest Service spokeswoman for the Tongass National Forest.

"As far as the ruling that came out today, we don't really know how it will affect the Tongass because we are still evaluating it," Groce said.

She did say the initial exemption was based on an evaluation of community needs, which remains relevant.

"The Tongass was happy to receive the exemption because it allowed for the Forest Service to respond to the needs of local people," she said.

As far as securing an equal rule for the Tongass that could protect its lands from logging and development interests, Groce said "most roadless areas (in the Tongass) are protected from development already."

Tongass officials will soon meet to discuss how the Forest Service will address the new ruling.

Earthjustice attorney Tom Waldo said, for some, the ultimate goal is to repeal the exemption for the Tongass. Waldo represented the Wilderness Society, one of the 20 conservation groups in the legal battle.

Waldo said reinstatement of the nationwide rule may pave the way for removing the Tongass exemption.

"This does put the Tongass back on the table for roadless area protection," he said Wednesday.

"I think that it is absolutely vital that the national forest that has the most roadless acres in it in the country be afforded roadless-area protections. Millions of Americans have been requesting this for years and we are going to work until the Tongass is protected," said Kenyon Fields, the financial and special projects director of the Sitka Conservation Society, the one Alaska environmental group that was a plaintiff in the suit.

Representatives of the timber industry said the decision would leave roadless areas vulnerable to catastrophic wildfires because firefighters could not access blazes in remote forests.

Chris West, vice president of the Portland, Ore.-based American Forest Industry Council, said states should be allowed to decide how to best manage and protect their forests.

"The states were given a level playing field and equal partnership in the decision-making process," West said. "This lawsuit and this decision is all about politics."

• The Associated Press contributed to this story