BOISE, Idaho, April 6, 2001 (ENS) - A federal judge in Idaho ruled
Thursday that the Clinton administration violated certain environmental
and disclosure rules in crafting the Roadless Protection Initiative,
opening the door for the Bush administration to overturn the regulation.
The judge's decision caps a rollercoaster week of forest protection
actions, ranging from legislation to lawsuits.
The Dome Peak roadless area in Colorado's White River National Forest
(All photos courtesy U.S. Forest Service, unless specified)[PARA]U.S.
District Court Judge Edward Lodge issued an order Thursday in a case
challenging the Clinton administration's roadless rule, which would
protect 58.5 million acres of national forest lands from roadbuilding,
logging and mining. Lodge refused to issue a preliminary injunction
blocking the rule, as requested by the state of Idaho.
However, Lodge also determined that the U.S. Forest Service under
President Bill Clinton failed to analyze all the possible negative
effects of the roadless rule, as required by the National Environmental
Policy Act (NEPA). In particular, the judge said the Forest Service
did not analyze cumulative impacts that barring roadbuilding could
have on the environment and the economy.
"While the Court acknowledges the common sense principle that
NEPA does not require an [Environmental Impact Statement] every time
the Government decides not to do something," wrote Lodge in his
21 page decision, "an action that serves to 'leave nature along'
by preventing the enactment of land management plans that provide
for road construction, reconstruction or timber harvesting, despite
recommendations by local officials, will certainly have a demonstrable
impact on the physical environment - the world around us, so to speak
- and is the very action upon which Congress intended NEPA to apply."
The ruling leaves the fate of the roadless rule largely in the hands
of the Bush administration, which has said repeatedly that it does
not favor closing off public lands to development. Lodge will make
a final ruling as to whether to halt the implementation of the roadless
initiative in May, after the Bush administration presents its own
arguments on the merits of the rule. Roads cut through more than half
of National Forest lands, making it harder for some species to survive
"Judge Lodge's ruling affirms what Idaho has contended all along
- that the Clinton Administration's efforts to rush their roadless
initiative onto the books have been a seriously and fundamentally
flawed process from the very beginning," said Idaho Governor
Dirk Kempthorne in a statement following the ruling. "I know
firsthand that President Bush and his administration are committed
to making a genuine effort to deal with this issue, and do it in a
way that takes into account the concerns of states that could be affected."
Environmental groups such as the Heritage Forests Campaign said Judge
Lodge's ruling was not surprising, as Lodge has issued similar decisions
regarding other environmental rules in the past. The ruling leaves
the future of the roadless initiative where it has been from the outset,
the group said - in the hands of George W. Bush. "All eyes are
now on the Bush Administration to implement this balanced and widely
popular conservation policy, which protects the last 30 percent of
America's unspoiled national forests," said Jane Danowitz, director
of Heritage Forests Campaign. "Will President Bush respect the
wishes of the overwhelming majority of Americans who support this
conservation policy, or will he continue to bow to the wishes of the
logging, mining, and oil and gas interests that supported his campaign?"
BIPARTISAN BILL WOULD END LOGGING SUBSIDIES
Some lawmakers are not willing to wait and see what the Bush administration
decides. On Wednesday, 74 members of Congress reintroduced the National
Forest Protection and Restoration Act (NFPRA), a bill to phase out
commercial logging in all national forests and wildlife refuges, and
on lands managed by the National Park Service and Bureau of Land Management
- virtually all federal lands.
The bill would redirect funds now spent to subsidize logging on federal
lands towards worker retraining, non-wood fiber research, forest restoration
and taxpayer relief. In 1999, the same bill had 48 cosponsors when
it was introduced, and it finished the 106th Congress with 99 cosponsors.
"Our national forests provide the American public with clean
drinking water for our communities, outstanding recreation for families,
and unexcelled wildlife and fish habitat," said Representatives
Cynthia McKinney, a Georgia Democrat. "Clearly we need to protect
these important resources while also putting people to work restoring
the damage caused by a century of logging and associated roadbuilding
in our national forests. The National Forest Protection and Restoration
Act will accomplish this."
McKinney said last summer's devastating wildfires highlighted the
need for extensive restoration in national forests - not for more
logging. "Sadly, some of my colleagues are using last summer's
wildfires as an excuse to increase the Forest Service's logging program
across the country. However, science shows that logging is the problem,
not the solution," McKinney argued. "Fire risk reduction
and restoration projects would be better accomplished by direct funding
under NFPRA rather than continuing the federal logging program."
The National Forest Protection Alliance, a grassroots coalition representing
300 environmental groups, businesses and religious organizations,
echoed McKinney's sentiments. "This bill is about as mainstream
as it gets. It not only protects our national forests, it saves taxpayers
$300 million annually," said Tom Weis, executive director of
the National Forest Protection Alliance. "It's time to get the
federal government out of the logging business and into the business
of protecting and restoring the public's national forests." The
federal logging program, while supplying less than four percent of
the nation's timber, costs American taxpayers more than $1 billion
a year, according to economic figures verified by the non-partisan
Congressional Research Service. Taxpayers pay for all expenses associated
with the federal logging program including road building, timber sale
planning and reforestation.
"As taxpayers, we're paying logging companies to clearcut our
public lands, and in return we get landslides, floods and polluted
streams. That's no bargain in my book," said Bernard Zaleha,
chair of the Sierra Club's committee to end commercial logging in
national forests. "By ending commercial logging in our national
forests, we will save money and protect our drinking water from pollution."
