On January 12, 2001, after nearly three years of analysis and the greatest public outreach in the history of federal rulemaking, the U.S. Forest Service adopted the Roadless Area Conservation Rule to conserve 58.5 million pristine acres of National Forests and Grasslands from most logging and road construction. The Roadless Area Conservation Rule is one of the most significant public lands measures of the last century.
Overwhelming Public Support
Throughout the rulemaking process and beyond, Americans vociferously expressed their desire to see the last 30 percent of pristine land on National Forests protected. The U.S. Forest Service held more than 600 meetings and hearings in 37 states, the majority in communities near National Forests. More than 25,000 people participated. Of the more than 1.6 million comments submitted, an overwhelming 95 percent favored the strongest possible protection for roadless areas. As well, in 18 separate opinion polls, conducted by both Republicans and Democrats, Americans demonstrated robust support for roadless area protection. In July 2005, over 140 members of the U.S. House of Representatives introduced a bill to codify the Roadless Rule into law.
Clearly the American people understand the need for strong roadless forest protection. Representing less than two percent of our country's landscape, these pristine lands are sources of clean drinking water for millions of Americans and wonderful backcountry recreation, including hiking, hunting and fishing. They offer safe harbor for vanishing and imperiled wildlife and fish species. They also provide a wide range of economic values and improve the overall quality of life in communities adjacent to National Forests.
Bush Administration Actions – National Rule Replaced with State Petition Process
Since 2001, the Administration has been trying to gain access to roadless forests (see attached chronology). On May 5, 2005, they announced their final plans for reversing the landmark Roadless Area Conservation Rule. The Administration eliminated all protections provided by the 2001 Rule, reverting management of these areas back to existing forest plans. Nationwide, forest plans allow road building in 34 million acres of inventoried roadless areas (IRAs), or about 59% of the 58.5 million acres of IRAs.
Even though roadless National Forests are federally owned and belong to all Americans, the Administration replaced the national rule with a cumbersome process that requires individual governors to petition the U.S. Department of Agriculture to request protection of roadless areas in their states through state-specific rules. The Administration has the final say on these state petitions and rules, however, and is free to accept, reject, or modify them.
In 2006, five states (New Mexico, California, Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina) have filed petitions requesting full protection of the roadless acres in their states that were covered by the 2001 Rule. In October 2006, Idaho became the first state to request less than 100% protection.
Court Reinstated the 2001 Roadless Rule
On September 20, 2006, US Magistrate Judge Elizabeth Laporte, of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, decided that the Bush Administration violated the National Environmental Policy Act and the Endangered Species Act when it repealed the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule. The court reinstated the 2001 Roadless Rule and enjoined the Forest Service from undertaking any road building or logging inconsistent with the Roadless Rule, except in the Tongass National Forest (see below). On November 29, the court specifically barred road building in connection with more than 300 oil and gas leases sold in roadless areas since January 2001, along with a road building project in Idaho.
>> Read a synopsis of Judge LaPorte's ruling 
Following Judge Laporte’s ruling, the Chief of the Forest Service has issued an agency-wide directive prohibiting any “further management activities in inventoried roadless areas that would be prohibited by the 2001 Roadless Rule.”
>> Read the directive
Tongass National Forest Exempted
While the court’s remedy restores the Roadless Rule to all National Forest roadless areas in the lower 48 states, it unfortunately does not include any of the 9.3 million acres of roadless land in Alaska’s Tongass National Forest. That is because the Bush Administration had previously exempted the Tongass from the Roadless Rule through settlement of the State of Alaska’s lawsuit challenging the Roadless Rule. However, since the Tongass exemption was based on the Tongass Land Management Plan which has been invalidated by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, it is questionable whether the Tongass exemption remains legally viable.
>> More about the Tongass exemption
Important Facts about Roadless Forests
- The National Forest System is comprised of over 192 million acres in 42 states. Roadless areas make up 58.5 million acres of National Forest lands in 38 states and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.
- The Roadless Rule has garnered widespread support since 2001, receiving more public comments than any federal rule in history.
- America’s National Forests are currently covered with 386,000 miles of roads - enough to encircle the earth 15 times - and a $4.5 billion maintenance backlog exists on National Forest roads according to the Forest Service’s own estimates (USFS Budget Justification 2006).
- Roadless forests safeguard clean water from watersheds nationwide, the source of drinking water for millions of Americans. More than half of roadless areas intersect watersheds that provide drinking water to local communities.
- Roadless forests preserve critical habitat for fish and wildlife, including more than 1,600 threatened, endangered or sensitive plant and animal species.
- More than 100 scientists wrote a letter to Clinton in 2004 extolling the high quality of watersheds, fisheries, and wildlife habitat provided by roadless forests. Also in 2004, more than 100 economists told the Administration that designating roadless areas is an economically sound policy that saves taxpayers millions of dollars.
- Exceptions were made to the Roadless Area Conservation Rule to allow road building to fight fire, protect property and provide access to state and private lands (Sec. 294.12 (b) of the 2001 Rule).
Additional Resources
