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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 12, 2006
Contact:
Paul Hughes, executive director: (415) 974-4201; paul@forestsforever.org
Marc Lecard, communications manager: (415) 974-4202; marc@forestsforever.org
Governor
will petition feds to protect California’s roadless forests
Schwarzenegger will also appeal Southern California forest plans
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger announced Tuesday that he
will file a petition today with the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture
seeking to protect all 4.4 million acres of federal roadless areas
in the state.
“We have been critical of the governor in the past for not
speaking up when California’s forests were in jeopardy,”
said Paul Hughes, executive director of Forests Forever. “But
this action represents a 180-degree reversal of Schwarzenegger's
November 2004 revelation that he would not file a petition under
the new, weakened Bush roadless rule.”
California’s 18 national forests contain about 4.4 million
acres of roadless land. The governor’s petition will reportedly
request protection for all of it.
One of the most popular environmental rules ever, the original Clinton-era
roadless rule protected 58.5 million roadless acres of national
forest from extractive uses.
By stripping away this protection in May 2005, the Forest Service
placed at risk hundreds of plant, insect, and animal species, threatened
drinking-water quality and left forests more vulnerable than before
to invasive species.
“Schwarzenegger’s decision to actively seek protection
for roadless areas sets a great example for governors in the West
and around the country,” Hughes said. “It appears that
the governor is finally hearing the voices of Californians who want
to see our forest heritage protected from excess logging, mining,
and development.
“But, as always, the devil is in the details. We are concerned
that firefighting provisions or fuels reductions projects might
compromise the wilderness character of roadless areas. What ‘emergency’
roadbuilding or access provisions will allow these activities to
go on?”
Forests Forever has campaigned for preserving the protections of
the original roadless rule since 2003. It has spoken out against
Bush's 2005 repeal of the Clinton rule, and in favor of the Roadless
Area Conservation Act sponsored by Rep. Jay Inslee (D-WA), which
would redesignate roadless areas as wilderness. At the state level,
the group has supported passage of A.B. 715 by Assemblyman Lloyd
Levine, which would prohibit the state from undercutting the Clinton
rule. The Levine bill passed both Assembly and Senate in 2005, but
languished prior to a final passage vote, partly due to a lack of
active support by Schwarzenegger.
In 2005 Forests Forever joined a lawsuit filed by Earthjustice on
behalf of 20 environmental organizations asking that the original
Roadless Area Conservation Rule of 2001 be restored. The governor’s
actions do not affect this lawsuit. The disposition of California’s
petition is still uncertain, as a rulemaking process and final decision
by the Bush administration must follow.
Nevertheless, the governors’ action is important for California
and the West, and Forests Forever applauds his decision to protect
the state’s roadless forests.
The decision by the Resources Department to appeal the recently
drafted forest management plans for four Southern California national
forests– Cleveland, Los Padres, Angeles and San Bernardino–
is welcome news as well. The plans would allow expanded off-road
vehicle use, electric transmission towers, toll roads and hydropower
projects, while designating very little new wilderness.
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