Court Upholds Roadless Forest Protection

As a few people know, I spent a couple of years working on roadless forest protection while working as Director of Communications for the Heritage Forests Campaign while it was housed at the National Audubon Society in Washington, D.C.

During that period, we delivered more than 2 million public comments to the U.S. Forest Service in favor of roadless forest protection -- seven times more public comments than had ever been received for any other federal regulatory initiative.

Of course, not everyone has been in favor of keeping the public in the debate about what should happen to our public forests. The Bush Administration, which received millions of dollars from timber operators, quickly moved to scuttle the roadless protection rule as soon as they came into office.

By their way of thinking, the real purpose of our National Forests is not to provide for hunting or recreational opportunities for average Americans -- it is to supply a steady stream of susidized timber to a handful of timber mill operators. Never mind that the American people actually lose well over a billion dollars a year by allowing clear-cutting in our National Forests. Never mind that National Forest land produces 15 times more recreational revenue than timber revenue. The Golden Rule in Washington has always been that those with the gold are allowed to make all the rules.

Now, I am happy to say, a court has overturned the Bush Administration and reinstated roadless forest protection. U.S. District Judge Elizabeth Laporte has ruled that the Bush administration failed to conduct necessary environmental studies before scuttling the roadless forest protection rule, and she has reinstated Clinton-era protections which prohibit logging, mining and other development on 58.5 million acres in 38 states and Puerto Rico. Judge Laporte sided with 20 environmental groups and four states - California, New Mexico, Oregon and Washington - that sued the U.S. Forest Service over the changes.

Judge Laporte's ruling does not affect about 9.3 million acres of Alaska's Tongass National Forest, which is covered by a separate rule on road construction and other development. The trees in the Tongass, many of them over 400 years old, are now being sold for a "stump price" of about $5 per tree -- less than the price of a McDonald's Happy Meal and a large milkshake.

This Tongass is your wild lands heritage. Once the Tongass is gone, it's gone forever. Let's protect the first National Forest set aside for protection by Teddy Roosevelt. It was first for a reason.