Lost opportunity:  "Roadless Area Conservation: National Forest System
Lands in Idaho final EIS )Volumes 1-5 and map packet)

We just got our response as a CD from the U.S. Department of Agriculture
Environmental Impact Statement (EIS)  for the Roadless Area Conservation;
National Forest System Lands in Idaho which supports the rule making
effort for the Idaho Roadless Rule.  
"
The final rule is to be published in October. It would provide management
direction regarding protection for rodless characteristics and
permissions for limited timber cutting and road construction and
reconstruction and discretionary mineral activities across 9.3 million
acres in Idaho.  Based on public comment, a new alternative (Alternative
4, the Modified Idaho Roadless Rule) was added to the final EIS. This
alternative is the preferred alternative and modifies the proposed action
by: 1. Reducing the amount of roadless areas placed in the General Forest
Rangeland and Grassland (GFRG) and reconfigureing them to more closely
reflect on the ground conditions of individual roadless areas.
2. Changing the permissions for road construction and reconstruction to
facilitate timber cutting sale and removal of the Backcountry Restoration
theme to focus on reducing risks from wildland fire to at-risk
communities and municipal water supply systems based on guidance provided
in HFRA  etc, etc,   Complete information can be found at
http://roadless.fs.fed.us/"

This was an opportunity for public comment.  More public comment could
make a  difference.  Lost roadless areas means loss to forests.Phyllis
Stern message 
Key to understanding his conclusions is that as forests decline, nature
stops providing services which it used to provide essentially for free. 
So the human economy either has to provide them instead, perhaps through
building reservoirs, building facilities to sequester carbon dioxide, or
farming foods that were once naturally available. 
Or we have to do without them; either way, there is a financial cost. 
The Teeb calculations show that the cost falls disproportionately on the
poor, because a greater part of their livelihood depends directly on the
forest, especially in tropical regions. 
The greatest cost to western nations would initially come through losing
a natural absorber of the most important greenhouse gas. 
Just as the Stern Review brought the economics of climate change into the
political arena and helped politicians see the consequences of their
policy choices, many in the conservation community believe the Teeb
review will lay open the economic consequences of halting or not halting
the slide in biodiversity. 
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