_Vilsack issues directive protecting national forest roadless areas_
(http://coloradoindependent.com/29841/vilsack-issues-directive-protecting-national
-forest-roadless-areas)
(http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php) By _David O. Williams_
(http://coloradoindependent.com/author/dwilliams/) 5/28/09 5:34 PM
Agriculture Secretary _Tom Vilsack Thursday issued a memorandum_
(http://www.environmentcolorado.org/uploads/XV/b3/XVb3YtkXHgpoFLMaOe-TjQ/InventoriedRoa
dless_InterimDirective_Final.pdf) essentially blocking most development
and road building on more than 53 million acres of national forest (4.4
million in Colorado) designated as roadless areas.
Conservationists were quick to praise Vilsack and the Obama administration’
s one-year “time out” to establish a long-term policy for managing
roadless areas. Most favor a return to the 2001 Clinton administration Roadless
Area Conservation Rule.
That highly protective bit of rulemaking was quickly set aside by the Bush
administration in favor of allowing states to petition the Forest Service
for their own customized roadless rules. Only Idaho and Colorado did so,
with Gov. Bill Ritter moving forward in order to protect against the federal
rule being scrapped altogether.
Ritter, though, asked for and received a _slowdown on the implementation of
the Colorado roadless rule_
(http://coloradoindependent.com/17103/ritter-slows-down-bush-roadless-rule-conservationists-cheer) until the federal
rule, which was the subject of conflicting federal court rulings, could be
sorted out.
At stake are more than 100 oil and gas leases on federal lands issued after
the Bush administration scrapped the Clinton rule. State conservationists
also say the Colorado rule allows more road-building exceptions for logging
operations and ski-area expansions than the Clinton rule.
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