On September 20th, Federal Judge Elizabeth Laporte of the U.S. District Court in San Francisco reinstated a ban on road construction in existing inventoried roadless areas. The decision overturned a Bush administration rule that eliminated mandatory federal protection of roadless areas and instead instituted a voluntary state petition process of protection. This less protective rule, which had only a brief and underpublicized public comment period, virtually eliminated the protections instituted in 2001 as the Roadless Area Conservation Rule which had been based on the largest public comment process ever held regarding a natural resource issue in the US.
Judge La Porte ruled on a lawsuit filed by the states of New Mexico, California, Oregon, Washington, Maine, and Montana and 20 conservation groups and found that the Bush administration acted illegally in reversing the 2001 Roadless Rule, opening up tens of millions of acres on our last wild national forests to logging and road construction. Laporte said the process violated federal law because it ignored both the National Environmental Policy Act and the U.S. Endangered Species Act in formulating its plan for roadless areas on federal public lands.
American Whitewater has consistently supported protection of the few remaining roadless areas in our nation. We view this as a significant victory for wild rivers and paddlers across the nation. While paddlers and many recreationists use roads to access rivers and wild places – true roadless areas are now few and far between. The Roadless Rule, now back in effect, does not require closure of any roads but simply protects remaining roadless areas from new road construction. Protection from new road building in these special places will protect ecological values and backcountry recreational opportunities.
While this case may continue to the supreme court, for now these wild places are once again protected.
You can read the decision on the American Lands website at:
http://americanlands.org/documents/1158782802_Order%20on%20Cross%20Motions%20for%20Summ%20J.pdf
American Lands has also collected a few news stories on the ruling at:
http://americanlands.org/issues.php?subsubNo=1149252502
Thank You to everyone who has written comments on behalf of roadless areas!