Governors, businesses, scientists and citizens call on White House to uphold roadless area protection

Charlottesville - With the end of the public comment period today on a proposed rule for the nation's "roadless" national forest areas, twelve governors, hundreds of prominent scientists and economists, and 1.5 million citizens have protested the Bush Administration's plan to scrap a popular conservation plan and render 58.5 million acres of national forest potentially open for development.

In July, the Administration proposed a rule that would replace the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule with a process in which governors who want these last, wild forests protected would have to undertake an arduous and costly petition process. In a letter last week, nine governors, including Virginia Gov. Mark Warner, expressed strong objections to the switch. Governors Mike Easley of North Carolina, Phil Bredesen of Tennessee and Ted Kulongoski of Oregon had earlier sent letters criticizing the plan.

More than 115 economists have urged the Administration to maintain nationwide protections, noting that the federal government should not be building new roads in roadless areas when it has an $8.4 billion backlog on maintenance on the 380,000-mile road system in the national forests. In addition, 127 scientists with expertise in forest and stream ecology and wildlife management wrote: "There is a growing consensus among the scientific community that a strong roadless conservation rule is one of the cornerstones to sustainable public lands management, biodiversity conservation, and ecosystem health of the national forest."

Numerous business giants, including forest products companies like International Paper, Building Materials Holding Company and Estee Lauder, along with more than 60 businesses in Virginia have objected to elimination of the 2001 rule. And since July, citizens have sent more than 1 million comments objecting to the administration's proposed rollback. These come on top of some 2.5 million comments sent over the last several years on the issue, virtually all in favor of permanent protection.

"Once again, Americans have spoken loud and clear - we want these wild forests protected," said David Carr, director of SELC's Public Lands Project. "Some governors realize the value in protecting these native forests, but others are pushing for this rollback. We can't turn America's natural heritage over to a few who want to cut and mine in these areas."

SELC also filed comments today in which the nonprofit advocacy organization concluded that the "state by state" petition option is biased against roadless protection. States that want their roadless areas protected would have to dedicate scarce money and staff time to prepare a lengthy petition, with no guarantee of securing roadless area protection. Conversely, states seeking resource extraction in their roadless areas need do nothing.

The Administration's proposal is not only contrary to the public interest, but is illegal because the Forest Service failed to provide a rationale for eliminating the 2001 rule, and failed to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement on its replacement rule, as required by the National Environmental Policy Act, Carr said.