Judge sides with environmental groups and states

BETH CASPER
Statesman Journal

September 21, 2006

A federal judge on Wednesday reinstated a road-construction ban in nearly 50 million acres of pristine wilderness, overturning a Bush administration rule that could have cleared the way for more commercial activity in national forests in Oregon and other states.

U.S. District Judge Elizabeth Laporte ruled that the Bush administration failed to conduct necessary environmental studies before making changes to the roadless rule.

The 2001 roadless rule, adopted by then-President Bill Clinton, prohibited logging, mining and other development on forests in 38 states and Puerto Rico. The Bush administration replaced it in May 2005 with a process requiring governors to petition the federal government to protect national forests in their states.

Oregon was one of four states, along with 20 environmental groups, to sue the U.S. Forest Service about the changes.

"This case again demonstrates how states, acting together, can successfully challenge the Bush administration and force the federal government to honor core environmental safeguards," said Gov. Ted Kulongoski. "Today's ruling is a significant victory for our efforts to protect nearly 2 million acres of roadless areas. These 2 million acres offer some of the best hunting and fishing in our state, and should be preserved as part of every Oregonian's natural heritage."

Despite the judge's ruling, logging likely will continue in two regions of Oregon -- Mike's Gulch and Blackberry in the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest -- where the timber is being removed by helicopter.

All the trees slated for cutting on Mike's Gulch have been cut and are being hauled out by helicopter, and loggers have been at work in the Blackberry area for two weeks, said Rogue River-Siskiyou spokeswoman Patty Burel.

Bush administration attorneys are reviewing Laporte's ruling to decide whether to appeal to the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, said Dave Tenny, the deputy undersecretary for the Department of Agriculture, which oversees the Forest Service.

"We're disappointed that the very good work we've been doing with the states in good faith has been disrupted," Tenny said, noting that a number of states had submitted petitions to ban new roads.

Oregon was in the process of submitting a petition. After three public hearings across the state and more than 1,500 written comments, it is clear that the public supports protecting the almost 2 million acres of roadless areas in Oregon, said Mike Carrier, Kulongoski's natural-resources adviser.

"We will continue to look at public comment and analyze it and summarize it," Carrier said. "Whether it is used for a petition under the 2005 rule or some other, it still interests us. It deserves our continued analysis."

Chris West of the American Forest Resource Council, a forest-management advocacy group, said he didn't understand why governors didn't want more control over lands within their states.

"Western governors had challenged a process put in place by the Bush administration to give them partnership and a personal seat at the table about how to determine how those lands should be managed," West said. "If governors truly cared about forests ... they would have jumped at the chance of a petition process that the Bush administration put forward."

Mike Gaudern, the executive director of the Salem-based Oregon Small Woodlands Association, said the roadless rule made the U.S. Forest Service a bad neighbor to family forest owners, which his group represents.

Fewer trees harvested on federal lands means a less- productive industry statewide, leaving small timber owners with fewer options for their trees, he said.

"That affects the capacity for the industry to sustain itself," Gaudern said. "We lose our competitive advantage in a global marketplace."

Richard Pine, the president of Salem-based O'Neill Pine Co., said national forest roads allow for responsible management of federal lands.

"Restricting responsible management of public lands that are adjacent or near our timber lands may increase fire and disease danger," Pine said.

Local and national environmentalists praised the judge's decision for protecting some of the last remaining wild places.

"The Bush administration took way too many short-cuts in their rush to clear cut," said Jeremiah Baumann of the Oregon State Public Interest Research Group. "Our most pristine national forests are once again safe from destructive logging, mining and oil drilling."

Carl Pope, the executive director of the Sierra Club, one of the plaintiffs, called Wednesday's ruling "a huge victory."

"These are increasingly scarce unspoiled places," Pope said, "that provide some of the highest quality fish and wildlife habitat, backcountry recreation and clean water supplies in the country."

Wyoming Gov. Dave Freduenthal said his state will seek to revive a lawsuit that led a federal judge in Cheyenne to strike down the Clinton rule in 2003. That ruling was rendered moot when the Bush administration issued its own rule.

After holding 600 public meetings in three years and receiving 1 million public comments urging forest protection, Clinton issued the Roadless Area Conservation Rule days before he left office in January 2001.

The rule protected nearly a third of the country's 192 million acres of national forestland.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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