Roadless rule due review

Conservationists still pushing for stronger version

By Bob Berwyn, Summit Daily News

Published July 28, 2008 at 12:05 a.m.

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The U.S. Forest Service is launching a public review of a proposed rule for national forests in Colorado that could weaken protection for about 4.1 million acres of federal "roadless" lands in the state.

The latest version of the rule, specific to Colorado, leaves loopholes for mining, logging, ski resort expansion and energy development, according to conservation groups.

The roadless rule affects about 58 million acres nationally, including approximately 60,000 acres in Summit County - mostly big chunks of federal land adjacent to existing wilderness areas.

Conservation groups said the comment period triggered by the July 25 publication of the rule in the Federal Register is a chance for Colorado once again to adopt more stringent protections offered by the original version, first unveiled in the final months of the Clinton administration.

The proposed rule is based on a plan drawn up by a statewide roadless task force that convened after the Bush administration opted for state-by-state standards for managing roadless areas rather than a single national policy.

Both the Clinton rule and Bush's replacement were challenged in court, with appeals still pending.

The Colorado version makes broad exceptions to leaving the land in its natural state for forest health projects far in the backcountry, and it would remove protections for about 3,000 acres of so-called "inventoried" roadless areas in the White River National Forest to expand ski areas.

But in a series of hearings around the state, the task force heard strong public support for giving the roadless areas the highest possible level of protection short of formal wilderness designation by Congress.

The Colorado Division of Wildlife studied the plan and underscored the importance of protecting roadless areas for wildlife.

Even a public lands expert with the Blue Ribbon Coalition, an Idaho-based advocacy group for motorized interests, recognized there is broad consensus in Colorado for roadless protection.

"You had hard-core dirt-bike riders saying they didn't see the need for more road construction," said the coalition's Brian Hawthorne, who attended several of the task force meetings.

More important to motorized users is access to and maintenance of existing national forest roads, he said.

Environmental organizations have been pressuring Gov. Bill Ritter to dump the state's petition asking for protection for

roadless areas under the Bush administration version of the rule. They argue that the version sent forward by his predecessor, Republican Bill Owens, preserves less land than the Clinton-era rule.

State officials, meanwhile, say they are confident the plan will protect roadless areas while still being responsive to comments from local communities.

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