_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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