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FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 11, 2007
Contact:
Paul Hughes, (415) 974-4201; paul@forestsforever.org
Marc Lecard, (415) 974-4202; marc@forestsforever.org
Bush
administration appeals roadless decision
Federal courts had thrown out Forest Service repeal of rule
San Francisco – On the last day possible, attorneys
for the Bush administration filed an appeal with the 9th Circuit
Court of Appeals in San Francisco, asking the court to overturn
the Feb. 7 decision by U.S. District Court Judge Elizabeth Laporte
that had rejected the administration’s repeal of the 2001
Roadless Area Conservation Rule.
Judge Laporte also had enjoined the U.S. Forest Service from carrying
out any projects that violated the provisions of the original, protective
roadless rule.
“The Bush administration’s attempt to get rid of the
popular and effective roadless rule has been thrown out by the courts,
and the original rule is back in force, protecting our last roadless,
untrammeled forests,” said Paul Hughes, executive director
of Forests Forever.
“The administration’s willingess to fight this to the
bitter end shows once again that we need to codify the roadless
rule’s provisions into federal law.”
The Bush administration gave no explanation of the grounds for its
appeal.
Twenty conservation groups including Forests Forever filed a lawsuit
in October 2005, seeking to overturn the Forest Service’s
repeal of the original Roadless Area Conservation Rule. Earlier,
in August 2005, the attorneys general of California and New Mexico
(joined later by Oregon and Washington) had filed a similar lawsuit.
Both suits asked the court to reinstate the original roadless rule.
In September 2006, Laporte ruled that the Forest Service had acted
illegally by repealing the original roadless rule without first
conducting an environmental review as required by the National Environmental
Policy Act, and for failing to consult with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service, as required by
the Endangered Species Act.
Laporte ruled that the Forest Service’s repeal of the Roadless
Rule was overturned and the original rule reinstated, exccept in
Alaska’s Tongass National Forest, which had been exempted
from the roadless rule previously by the Bush administration.
Laporte issued a final injunction order in the repeal litigation
on Feb. 7, halting all federal projects in roadless areas. The injunction
applied to projects that had been approved before her initial ruling
in the case on Sept. 20, 2006.
The period for filing an appeal expired on April 9.
For more information on the Roadless Rule and its repeal, please
visit www.earthjustice.org/campaign/display.html?ID=4.
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