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FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 27, 2006
Contact:
Paul Hughes, executive director: (415) 974-4201; paul@forestsforever.org
Marc Lecard, communications manager: (415) 974-4202; marc@forestsforever.org
Federal
Court to Hear Arguments for Protecting Roadless Areas
What: Roadless Rule Repeal hearing
When: Tuesday, August 1, 9:00 a.m.
Where: Courtroom E, Fifteenth Floor
Federal Building
450 Golden Gate Ave.
San Francisco, CA
Who: Magistrate Judge Elizabeth Laporte
Attorneys for states of California, Oregon, Washington, New Mexico
Attorneys for environmental organizations
Attorneys for the U.S. Department of Justice
Why: States and conservation groups will present
arguments explaining why the Bush administration’s 2005 repeal
of the immensely popular roadless area protection rule violates
the law.
The states and conservation groups are asking the court to find
the Bush repeal invalid and to reinstate the Roadless Rule. The
2005 Roadless Repeal, adopted with no environmental analysis and
limited public input, replaced a Clinton-era rule adopted in January
2001 after a three-year process that included 600 public hearings
and 1.6 million public comments.
In addition to repealing the roadless rule, the Bush rule invites
governors to submit petitions recommending management schemes for
the national forests in their states. To date, five states (Virginia,
North Carolina, South Carolina, New Mexico, and California) have
lodged such petitions, and all call for protection for all roadless
areas in their states. None of these petitions have yet been granted.
Other states, including Oregon and Colorado, that have not yet petitioned,
are facing Bush administration plans to log or develop oil and gas
in roadless areas.
If the court agrees with the states’ and conservation groups’
arguments, 58.5 million acres of roadless public forests across
the country could once again be protected against road building
and logging.
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