Roadless Area Conservation

Roadless Area Conservation



August, 2008 - The national nonprofit Wilderness

Society said it will challenge Tuesday's decision by a federal judge in

Wyoming to block the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule.

For the second time, U.S. District Judge Clarence Brimmer issued a

permanent injunction against the Clinton era roadless rule, saying it

violated the National Environmental Policy Act and the Wilderness Act.

The case was brought, for the second time, by the State of Wyoming against

the U.S. Department of Agriculture and other federal agencies.

Environmentalists believe that Judge Brimmer's order conflicts with, but

does not overturn, a 2006 decision by a California federal magistrate

judge that upheld the Roadless Rule.

Judge Brimmer's injunction puts at risk 58.5 million acres of pristine

national forest lands in 38 states that were protected from road building,

logging and other development by a directive of President Bill Clinton to

the U.S. Forest Service issued in 1999.



The public process initiated by that directive concluded with the

promulgation of the Roadless Area Conservation Rule just eight days before

the end of the Clinton administration.

More than two million public comments in favor of the roadless rule were

received during the comment period, which included 187 public hearings

across the country.

Yet, Judge Brimmer did not give weight to the 18 month-long public process

and numerous public comments. He did give weight to then Wyoming Governor

Jim Geringer's complaint that the public comment period was

"extraordinarily short."

"The Forest Service, in an attempt to bolster an outgoing President's

environmental legacy, rammed through an environmental agenda that itself

violates the country's well-established environmental laws," Judge Brimmer

wrote in his injunction order.

The judge wrote, "The Forest Service's preordained conception of what a

roadless area would be, and its schedule for implementing the final rule,

caused the Forest Service to drive the Roadless Rule through the

administrative process without weighing the pros and cons of reasonable

alternatives to the Roadless Rule. At no time did the Forest Service stop

to consider whether Roadless Rule was the best idea for the greatest

number of people."

Mike Anderson, an attorney with The Wilderness Society, said the group

will appeal Judge Brimmer's order to the U.S. 10th Circuit Court of

Appeals in Denver.

The Roadless Rule has been the subject of repeated lawsuits from both

opponents and supporters.

In July 2003, Judge Brimmer rejected the rule in a lawsuit brought by the

state of Wyoming, which has about 3.5 million acres of national forests

subject to protections set forth by the rule.

In May 2005, the Bush administration replaced the Roadless Rule with the

State Petitions Rule that required governors to petition the U.S.

Department of Agriculture to protect national forests in their states.

Environmentalists sued to reinstate the Roadless Rule. In September 2006,

Judge Elizabeth Laporte, Magistrate for the U.S. District Court for

Northern California, ruled that the administration had illegally repealed

the roadless rule.

The judge set aside 2005 State Petitions Rule and reinstated the Roadless

Rule nationwide, except in Alaska's Tongass National Forest.

On November 29, 2006, Judge Laporte issued an injunction halting all

activities inconsistent with the Roadless Rule. In her injunction, Judge

Laporte stated that because the 2001 rule had been repealed illegally, all

projects in roadless areas inconsistent with that rule were also illegal

and must be halted.

On February 6, 2007 Judge Laporte issued a final injunction, clarifying

that her November 2006 injunction extended to oil and gas drilling permits

as well as leases issued since May 2005.

In his order issued Tuesday, Judge Brimmer wrote that Magistrate Judge

Laporte's injunction had the effect of "surreptitiously" reinstituting the

2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule although he had previously decided it

was illegal.

Anderson says he believes Laporte's decision is still in effect. "It is

not in any way overturned or compromised by Judge Brimmer's decision in

Wyoming today," Anderson told the Associated Press. "What it does do is

create two conflicting court decisions in different federal courts,

different states, both issuing decisions with nationwide impact."

Wyoming Attorney General Bruce Salzburg said the injunction was

appropriate because roads might be needed in national forests to fight

fires and insect infestations.

Conservation groups that intervened in the case in support of the federal

agencies are the Biodiversity Conservation Alliance, Defenders of

Wildlife, National Audubon Society, Natural Resources Defe Council,

Pacific Rivers Council, Sierra Club, Wilderness Society and the Wyoming

Outdoor Council.





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