White House seeks to slash environmental protection for "roadless" forests

Charlottesville - In a move that defies widespread public opinion and scientific evidence, the Bush Administration today announced a proposal that jeopardizes America's most wild and scenic national forest lands by eliminating the publicly popular Roadless Area Conservation Rule of 2001.

The proposal, which is being announced by Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman, would throw open the fate of the nation's 58.5 million roadless acres to politics by replacing the 2001 rule with a state petition process that essentially eliminates federal protections against road building, commercial logging and mining. Under the "opt-in" proposal, state governors would have to petition the Secretary, and the Secretary would have to agree, to prevent development of the roadless areas in their states.

"This plan wrongly puts the fate of our national treasures in the hands of state governors - it would be like letting the governor of Arizona decide what happens to the Grand Canyon," said David Carr, director of SELC's National Forests Project. "These wild, roadless areas are part of America's natural heritage, owned by all Americans. They deserve the strong safeguards of the Roadless Area Conservation Rule."

Without the conservation rule, more than 75%, or 555,000 acres, of the roadless acreage in the nine Southern Appalachian national forests would be immediately vulnerable to road building and commercial logging under existing management plans for those forests, Carr said. Future management plans could target the remaining roadless areas for development as well.

More than 2.5 million people - including more than 100,000 Southerners - have supported the conservation rule, which prohibits road building, logging and other development in roadless areas while providing for certain activities to address fires, insects and public safety. Three hundred religious leaders and 200 scientists across the country have also supported roadless-area protection. In addition, more than 175 Senators and Representatives of both parties - including Senators John Kerry, John Edwards and John Warner - support maintaining the 2001 rule. In Virginia, which has the most roadless acreage east of the Mississippi, more than 100 business owners sent a letter to the White House last month in support of the 2001 rule, and Governor Mark Warner was one of the first governors in the country to voice opposition to a change in the rule. In August 2003, he wrote Sec. Veneman:

"We understand the administration is planning to propose state-by-state exemptions to the National Roadless Area Conservation Rule. We believe that approach is unnecessary given the current rule's reasonable exemptions. Such an approach would undermine the important national rule necessary to insure the conservation of roadless areas for the use of current and future generations."

The Southern Appalachian national forests already have 12,000 miles of roadway criss-crossing the 4 million acres, and a road-maintenance backlog exceeding $200 million. Almost half of the road system, about 5,000 miles, exists exclusively to serve commercial interests and is closed to the general public. "The last thing we need is more roads in our national forests, particularly not in our roadless areas," Carr said.

Roadless areas have provided premier recreation opportunities for generations of Southerners. They also provide prime habitat for migratory songbirds, black bear, native trout, and many threatened and endangered species, and are the source of clean drinking water for scores of homes and communities.

The conservation rule is particularly important for the South. Currently, only 15% of the land in the nine Southern Appalachian national forests is identified by the U.S. Forest Service as roadless, well below the national average of 31%. Yet approximately half the nation's population lives within a day's drive of the Southern Appalachian national forests.