Media Contacts
Ellen Montgomery
Director, Great Outdoors Campaign, Environment America Research & Policy Center
WASHINGTON –The U.S. Forest Service has formally begun to rescind the 2001 “Roadless Rule” which protects 58.5 million acres of wild areas in national forests across 38 states and Puerto Rico. USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins initially announced plans to roll back these forest protections on June 23 at the Western Governor’s Association Meeting. To begin the official process, the agency will post a “Notice of Intent” to the Federal Register on Friday, at which point a 21-day public comment period will commence.
Enacted by President Bill Clinton in 2001, the Roadless Area Conservation Rule was the result of years of work and public input. The public comment period set a record with 1.6 million public comments submitted, and tens of thousands of people participated in hundreds of public meetings. The rule protects roadless areas from new road construction and prohibits the commercial logging of roadless areas. The posted notice does not include rolling back protections for Colorado or Idaho roadless areas, which are protected by state-specific rules which were enacted after 2001. The total number of acres that will be affected by this announcement is approximately 45 million.
In response, Environment America Research & Policy Center Great Outdoor Campaign Director Ellen Montgomery issued the following statement:
“Rescinding this protection is a move in the wrong direction. We need nature far more than we need extra wood products. Americans love our wild forests. We escape from cities and towns to spend time under the trees. We camp and hike, we bike and climb, and we fish and swim in places protected by the Roadless Rule. Our forests are part of our natural heritage and our children deserve to inherit them from us.
“Communities depend on clear water filtered by roadless areas, animals depend on the unfragmented habitat that can only exist where there are no roads and anglers depend on clean water in the streams where trout and salmon swim. We cannot let these essential forests be carved up by roads, obliterated by chainsaws and contaminated by mines.”
