Administration Is Exempting Alaska Forest From Protection (Legal?)

[papau]

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/24/politics/24ENVI.html?pagewanted=all

Administration Is Exempting Alaska Forest From Protection
By JENNIFER 8. LEE

Published: December 24, 2003

WASHINGTON, Dec. 23 — The Bush administration announced on Tuesday that the Tongass National Forest in Alaska, the largest in the country, would be exempted from a Clinton-era rule, potentially opening up more than half of the 17 million-acre forest for more development and as many as 50 logging projects.

The decision stems from the settlement of a lawsuit between Alaska and the federal government over the so-called roadless rule, which prohibited the building of roads in 58.5 million acres of undeveloped national forest across the country.


<snip>
Before putting the roadless designation into effect, the Forest Service had drawn up plans for the immediate development of 300,000 acres in the Tongass. Environmental groups say that about 9.6 million acres of the Tongass could be affected by the dropping of the ban.

<snip> ..Industry groups and states have made a concerted effort to attack the rule through lawsuits around the country. In July, a federal district court judge in Wyoming suspended the rule nationwide. Environmental groups are appealing the case to the United States Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit, in Denver. Before that, a federal court in Idaho originally threw out the roadless rule, but that decision was overturned last December by the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, in San Francisco.

The Tongass National Forest, with 16.8 million acres, has been particularly contentious because of its environmental symbolism as the only temperate rain forest on the continent.

[SwellGround]

1. It was only three acres and just for road building

Hopefully the roads are for visitors and recreation. It would be nice to see some of the Tongass without having to take three weeks off work to get in and out and rushed at that. If they hold at three percent there should not be much impact if any.

[kimchi]

2. Where did you get the "three acres"? Link please.

Did you read the first sentence of the snip?

"The Bush administration announced on Tuesday that the Tongass National Forest in Alaska, the largest in the country, would be exempted from a Clinton-era rule, potentially opening up more than half of the 17 million-acre forest for more development and as many as 50 logging projects."

Doesn't sound like three acres for road building to me. Unless "development" and "logging projects" are the code words for "three acres". Can we throw in a mule, too, just for good measure?

[ochazuke]

3. I think he didn't see those zeros.

Not 3 acres but 300,000 acres.

Uphold the Roadless Rule! It was developed over years of consultation during the Clinton administration, but the tiny minority of special interests who oppose it are charter members of bushco.