CA Roadless Areas: Trampled by Wyoming Judge?
Chris Thomas, News Director
Friday, August 15, 2008
CA - About 20 percent of California's national forest land is roadless, at least for now. But that could change. This week, a federal judge in Wyoming decided the "Roadless Rule" should not have been enacted back in 2001. The case was filed by the State of Wyoming, which wants to build roads in national forests for oil and gas drilling, as well as logging. The law firm Earthjustice argued in favor of keeping the Roadless Rule. Attorney Todd True says this case is the latest in a long series of efforts to weaken protections for federal land.
"The Wyoming case was one of nine that timber, mining and grazing interests filed around the country in 2001 to attempt to block the original rule that protected these roadless areas. All of the other cases have been put to bed, and none of them resulted in a ruling against the Roadless Rule."
Earthjustice has filed an appeal on behalf of several conservation groups. The judge contends that, when the Roadless Rule was first being considered, there wasn't enough opportunity for public comment. Conservation groups argue that there were hundreds of public hearings and 1.7 million comments, the majority of which favored the Roadless Rule.
The ruling affects 4.5 million acres in California, and 60 million acres nationwide. Mike Anderson, senior policy analyst for the Wilderness Society, says it flies in the face of public opinion.
"There has been solid, overwhelming public support for protecting these roadless areas in the national forests. In the end, we should see the areas protected as the public has wanted them protected."
More information on the Wilderness Society is available at http://wilderness.org.
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