Environmentalists give feds 700,000 comments for roadless plan

Monday, July 17, 2000 | 4:12 a.m.

A 7-foot-tall pyramid of mailbags filled with written comments from around the country was stacked outside of the Salt Lake Federal Building.

The comments were meant to bolster a Forest Service proposal to ban new roads in roadless areas. They also requested an extension for banning off-road vehicles, helicopter logging and mining on roadless forest lands.

The environmentalists claim that when combined with other organizations' mail, public comments and e-mail, the total comments in favor of the ban numbered more than 1 million.

The petitions were trucked to Salt Lake City because this is where the Forest Service is collecting comments.

Ken Rait, director of the Heritage Forests Campaign in Portland, Ore., said called it the largest outpouring of public comment on federal rule-making he has seen.

"Now it is up to President Clinton to rescue his legacy" on environmental matters, he said.

Julie Wormser of the Wilderness Society in Boston said Americans overwhelmingly want remaining roadless forest areas to remain wild.

"This is not about playing God," she added. "It's about playing Noah."