July 12, 2004

CONTACT: Arthur Stamoulis
(215) 567-4004 ext. 222

U.S. Forest Service Ends Popular Roadless Rule
New Policy Amounts to Zero Guaranteed Protection for Allegheny Forest's Roadless Areas

Philadelphia, PA - Conservationists charged today that Bush administration's plan to repeal the Roadless Area Conservation Rule in favor of a state petition process will make roadless areas in Allegheny National Forest and around the country vulnerable to road-building, drilling and commercial logging. The USDA Forest Service's policy change was announced this afternoon in Boise, Idaho and will reportedly appear in the Federal Register later this week.

"Today's announcement leaves 58 million acres of roadless areas without protection, including 25,000 acres in Pennsylvania," said Arthur Stamoulis, Policy Analyst for Clean Air Council. "National forests should be protected for the benefit of all Americans. This policy hands public lands over to the timber, oil and mining industries."

"Weakening protections for America's national forests is not wise and is certainly not conservative," said Sandy Moser, President of the Pennsylvania Chapter of REP America (Republicans for Environmental Protection). "Roadless areas in Allegheny National Forest provide critical wildlife habitat and are an important source of clean drinking water in the state. The Forest Service's changes to the roadless rule seem incredibly short-sighted."

Today's announcement, which has been years in the making, seeks to require governors to petition the USDA Forest Service to protect roadless areas in their states. However, the USDA does not have to adopt the petitions, as stated in a regulatory schedule released last week, "Such petitions would be evaluated and, if agreed to, addressed by the Secretary in a subsequent rulemaking on a State-by-State basis." Furthermore, if a governor chooses not to submit a petition the management of roadless areas would revert to the direction of local forest plans, which allow road-building and logging on most of the 58 million acres of roadless areas.

In a January 30, 2004 letter to the President, Governor Edward G. Rendell urged that the roadless rule by upheld, writing, "It will ensure that future generations of Pennsylvanians will have the opportunity to use and enjoy Pennsylvania's Allegheny National Forest as past generations have done."

"We are glad Governor Rendell has spoken in favor of Pennsylvania's roadless areas. But even if Governor Rendell is able to petition for protection of Allegheny National Forest, the Forest Service's timber baron, Mark Rey, gets the final say," said Stamoulis. "May no mistake about it. This is a complete gutting of roadless protections."

Late last year, the Bush administration exempted the Tongass National Forest from the rule in a stealth move two days before Christmas. To date the public has submitted more than 2.5 million comments in support of the Roadless Rule, more comments than any other rulemaking process in history.

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