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10-06-06, 11:34
<!--StartFragment --> SAN FRANCISCO, CA—Late last month, a federal judge reinstated the “Roadless Rule,” a President Bill Clinton-era ban on road construction in approximately one-third of the country’s national forests.
In reestablishing the rule, U.S. District Judge Elizabeth Laporte ruled that the Bush administration failed to conduct necessary environmental studies before making changes that allowed states to decide how to manage individual national forests.
The Clinton Administration’s 2001 roadless rule prohibited logging, mining and other development on 58.5 million acres of national forests in 38 states and Puerto Rico, but the Bush administration replaced it in May 2005 with a process that required governors to petition the federal government to protect national forests in their states.
In her ruling, Laporte sided with 20 environmental groups and four states—California, New Mexico, Oregon and Washington state—that had sued the U.S. Forest Service over the changes.
Laporte’s ruling does not affect 9.3 million acres of Alaska’s Tongass National Forest, which is covered by a separate road construction rule.
For more information on this story, visit www.fs.fed.us (http://www.fs.fed.us/).
In reestablishing the rule, U.S. District Judge Elizabeth Laporte ruled that the Bush administration failed to conduct necessary environmental studies before making changes that allowed states to decide how to manage individual national forests.
The Clinton Administration’s 2001 roadless rule prohibited logging, mining and other development on 58.5 million acres of national forests in 38 states and Puerto Rico, but the Bush administration replaced it in May 2005 with a process that required governors to petition the federal government to protect national forests in their states.
In her ruling, Laporte sided with 20 environmental groups and four states—California, New Mexico, Oregon and Washington state—that had sued the U.S. Forest Service over the changes.
Laporte’s ruling does not affect 9.3 million acres of Alaska’s Tongass National Forest, which is covered by a separate road construction rule.
For more information on this story, visit www.fs.fed.us (http://www.fs.fed.us/).