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For
Immediate Release:
October 6, 2005
Contacts:
Ryan Henson, California Wilderness Coalition: 530-902-1648
Mike Anderson, The Wilderness Society: 206-624-6430
Doug Heiken, ONRC: 541-344-0675
Kristen Boyles, Earthjustice: 206-343-7340 x33
Western Citizens Seek To Reinstate Roadless
Area Protections:
Roadless Repeal Challenged
San Francisco, CA – Joining the States of California, Oregon,
and New Mexico, 20 conservation groups today added their voices
to the call for protection of the last wild places in North America.
The conservation groups filed a lawsuit in federal district court
in San Francisco seeking to invalidate a Bush administration decision
targeting the last, large untouched tracts of our national forests
for industrial development. The suit asks the court to reinstate
a prior rule that protected these key areas.
“Roadless forests provide Americans with clean water and air,
and homes for our wildlife. They also give us quiet places to recreate
and recharge,” said James Wilson, owner of Wilson’s
Eastside Sports in Bishop, California and a board member of California
Wilderness Coalition. “Many places in the west, including
the Sierra Nevada where I live, are endangered by bulldozers and
chainsaws that destroy the outdoors hikers, fishermen, birdwatchers,
and hunters come to experience.”
The 2001 Roadless Rule was a widely supported regulation that protected
over 58 million acres of public land on national forests from road
construction, commercial logging, and development. Hunters, fishermen,
hikers, and millions of regular Americans considered it one of the
greatest forest conservation measures in U.S. history. Despite its
valuable protections, the 2001 Roadless Rule was formally repealed
by the Bush administration in May of 2005.
“Our business relies on the cold, clear water that flows from
our roadless forests. Developing these areas would hurt our business
and affect our quality of life,” said Bonnie Schonefeld, owner
of Lochsa Connection, a Kooskia, Idaho-based whitewater supply company.
“Roadless areas in the Colville and Umatilla National Forests
are places I regularly hunt and fish,” said Jeff Holmes of
Cheney, Washington. “I don’t think DC bureaucrats should
give away these special places.”
Approximately 1.2 million Americans commented on the roadless rule
after it was first proposed in 1998. Over 95 percent of these people
supported the proposed ban on new roadbuilding in our largest tracts
of undeveloped forest. The Bush administration’s repeal of
the Roadless Rule swept away those protections without consideration
for science, economics, biology, cost to communities, or common
sense.
“Building new roads into roadless areas just adds more taxpayer
subsidies, increases budget deficits, and is lousy public policy,”
said Gundars Rudzitis, Professor of Economic Geography at the University
of Idaho in Moscow. According to research conducted by Rudzitis
and others, residents of communities adjacent to pristine areas
“care about living close to unspoiled nature, where they can
pursue hunting and fishing on public lands.” Rudzitis concluded,
“building roads into these pristine areas will only negatively
impact the long-term economic future of these communities.”
On national forests, 386,000 miles of roads, many to nowhere, fragment
wildlife habitat and open the land to massive, landscape-scale clearcut
logging, as well as increased threat of wildfires. Thousands of
miles of these roads have fallen into disrepair and are collapsing
and eroding into many of our key watersheds causing significant
water pollution problems for people and wildlife.
“Many roadless areas are the source of clear, cold streams
that wild fish need to survive,” said Kristen Boyles with
Earthjustice. “Last year, scientists at EPA recommended that
key salmon and steelhead roadless areas remain protected, but that
unbiased advice was ignored by the Bush administration.”
The Roadless Repeal also gives state governors the right to petition
the Department of Agriculture, which oversees the US Forest Service,
for particular roadless area protections, although the petitions
may or may not be granted. Many states governors have objected to
this process because it is cumbersome and costly. “This state-by-state
approach takes the national out of national forests,” said
Mike Anderson of The Wilderness Society. “Our National Forests
belong to all Americans.”
The lawsuit was filed by Earthjustice on behalf of The Wilderness
Society, California Wilderness Coalition, Forests Forever Foundation,
Northcoast Environmental Center, Oregon Natural Resources Fund,
Sitka Conservation Society, Siskiyou Regional Education Project,
Biodiversity Conservation Alliance, Sierra Club, National Audubon
Society, Greater Yellowstone Coalition, Center for Biological Diversity,
Environmental Protection Information Center, Klamath-Siskiyou Wildlands
Center, Defenders of Wildlife, Pacific Rivers Council, Idaho Conservation
League, Conservation NW, and Greenpeace. The Attorneys General of
California and New Mexico and the Governor of Oregon filed a lawsuit
challenging the Roadless Repeal on August 30, 2005.
For more information on the Roadless Rule and its repeal, please
visit
www.earthjustice.org/campaign/display.html?ID=4
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