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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 20, 2006
Contact:
Paul Hughes, (415) 974-4201; paul@forestsforever.org
Marc Lecard, (415) 974-4202; marc@forestsforever.org
Roadless
Rule Reinstated!
Federal court overturns Bush administration repeal
San Francisco, California — In a stunning victory for American
wilderness and wildlife, a federal judge in San Francisco has thrown
out the Bush administration’s repeal of the Roadless Area
Conservation Rule and reinstated the Clinton-era regulation protecting
58.5 million acres of roadless federal lands.
Magistrate Judge Elizabeth Laporte of the U.S. District Court for
the Northern District of California on Sept. 19 ruled that the U.S.
Forest Service had acted illegally by repealing the original roadless
rule without conducting an environmental review as required by the
National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), and for failing to consult
with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine
Fisheries Service, as required under the Endangered Species Act.
“The (Bush administration’s) State Petitions Rule is
set aside and the roadless rule, including the Tongass Amendment,
is reinstated,” Laporte’s opinion states
The federal agencies “are enjoined from taking any further
action contrary to the roadless rule without undertaking environmental
analysis consistent with this opinion.”
“The court’s reinstatement of the original, protective
roadless rule is an exhilarating development,” said Paul Hughes,
executive director of Forests Forever Foundation in San Francisco.
“In tossing out the Bush administration’s attempt to
open the national forests to logging and all kinds of development,
the court is also reflecting the opinion of the majority of Americans,
who have said repeatedly, in polls and by participating in public
comment on the rule in record numbers, that they want the roadless
forests of this country protected.”
The original Roadless Area Conservation Rule protected 58.5 million
roadless acres of national forest from roadbuilding, logging, drilling,
mining, and other development.
The roadless rule was one of the most popular environmental rules
ever written. More than 1.2 million Americans commented on the rule
after it was first proposed in 1998, with more than 95 percent of
them supporting its ban on new roadbuilding in public forests.
The 2001 Roadless Rule was formally repealed by the Bush administration
in May of 2005. The new Bush rule forced state governors to petition
the U.S. Department of Agriculture if they wanted to retain roadless
area protections in their states. The new rule gave no assurance
that the petitions would be granted, however. Many governors objected
to this process as cumbersome and costly.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger of California recently filed a petition
under the Bush rule that would protect all 4.4 million roadless
acres in the state’s national forests.
Twenty conservation groups filed a lawsuit last October, seeking
to overturn the repeal. Earlier, in August 2005, the attorneys general
of California and New Mexico had filed a similar lawsuit. Both suits
asked the court to reinstate the original roadless rule.
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 roadless rule is back!” Hughes said. “There
is renewed hope for saving the last wild forests of this country.”
Read
the court's decision:
Roadless opinion PDF
For more information on the Roadless Rule and its repeal, please
visit http://www.earthjustice.org/campaign/display.html?ID=4.
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