Bush Administration Revokes Roadless Area Protections

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May 5, 2005

FLAGSTAFF, AZ – Yesterday the Bush Administration released final plans to revoke the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule, effectively turning its back on the millions of Americans who submitted comments opposing the rule change.

“Roadless areas contain Americas healthiest forests—our best wildlife habitats, our best hunting and fishing spots, vital watersheds, and our most remote and scenic forested landscapes. That’s why the public has resoundingly supported protecting them,” said Taylor McKinnon, Director of Forest Conservation at Grand Canyon Trust.

The 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule resulted from the most extensive federal rulemaking process in American history. The Forest Service held over 600 public meetings and received a record-breaking 2.5 million public comments supporting protections for 58.5 million acres of the most pristine National Forest remaining in America, including 1.1 million acres in Arizona and 4 million acres in Utah. The new rule repeals those protections.

“The Bush rule marks the untimely death of one of the most foresighted and broadly supported conservation initiatives in the Forest Service’s history,” said Taylor McKinnon, Director of Forest Conservation at Grand Canyon Trust, “It thumbs its nose at the public and their desire to protect roadless forests—it’s force-feeding America the administration’s pro-industry agenda.”

With most of America's national forests already open to resource extraction, this visionary rule was intended to protect the last third of undeveloped forests from the negative impacts of roads, logging and other development. Conservation biologists have for many years pointed to the value of roadless areas for providing large blocks of relatively undisturbed land for conserving species and ecosystems.

“The old rule aligned policy with conservation biology,” said McKinnon, “The new rule aligns policy with industry.”

The administration’s new rule replaces the Roadless Area Conservation Rule with a cumbersome two-step petition process. In that process States could choose to petition the Secretary of Agriculture to protect roadless areas within 18 months of rule finalization with no guarantees as to the outcome. Denied petitions would preclude any additional roadless area protection in a given State, while approved or modified petitions would be subject to a second State-specific rulemaking process. The final rule was issued in the face of a $10 billion maintenance backlog for the 380,000 miles of existing roads on National Forest lands.

“The intended result is death by process for America’s most remote and scenic forests, the species they support, and the vitality of the last best ecosystems upon which society ultimately depends,” said McKinnon, “Were there ever a case study of the administration’s shortsighted, industry-driven approach to environmental policy making, this would be it,” McKinnon concluded

For more information contact:

• Taylor McKinnon
  928-774-7488
  Email

For additional background information on Grand Canyon Trust see: www.grandcanyontrust.org

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