Saturday, August 08, 2009
An attempt by the Bush administration to thwart the protection of national forest lands from development was overturned on Wednesday by a federal appeals court in California. The legal battle pitted the Roadless Area Conservation Rule of 2001, adopted during the closing days of the Clinton administration, against the State Petitions Rule that Bush-appointed officials implemented in 2005. The 2001 rule was designed to preserve 58 million acres of public forests land from road building, logging and other development, while the Bush rule allowed state officials to get around the roadless rule by giving them authority over national forests within their state boundaries.
Judge Robert Beezer, who wrote the court’s opinion, said, “The Forest Service’s use of a categorical exemption to repeal the nationwide protections of the Roadless Rule and to invite states to pursue varying rules for roadless area management was unreasonable. It was likewise unreasonable for the Forest Service to assert that the environment, listed species, and their critical habitats would be unaffected by this regulatory change.”
-Noel Brinkerhoff
Appeals Court Reinstates U.S. Roadless Area Conservation Rule (Environment News Service)
Court Upholds Ban on U.S. Forest Roads (by Valerie Richardson, Washington Times)
Court Ruling (United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit) (PDF)
Roadless Area Conservation Website (U.S. Forest Service)
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