Editorial: Bush’s rule risks forests

Monday, May 9, 2005 | 9:06 a.m.

The Roadless Area Conservation Rule protecting sensitive portions of national forests was immensely popular with the American people but was an anathema to the logging, mining and oil and gas exploration industries. That being the case, it came as no surprise last week when President Bush replaced the rule, which was adopted in the final days of the Clinton administration. The new Bush rule, of course, is consistent with the president's view that individual citizens and the environment are secondary to special interests.

President Bill Clinton approved the rule only after it had been debated for about 20 years and had undergone three years of review by government agencies and individual Americans at public meetings. According to a report by the American Forests Heritage Campaign, a nonprofit organization, the U.S. Forest Service received a record 1.7 million comments on the rule, five times more than what is normally received in the federal rulemaking process. "More than 95 percent of these comments supported the strongest possible protection for all of our nation's remaining roadless areas," the report stated.

Affecting mostly Western states and Alaska, the rule Clinton signed prohibited road building in 58.5 million acres of the 191 million acres of national forests. Without roads, the acreage would remain virtually pristine for outdoor enthusiasts such as fishermen, hunters and hikers -- and for future generations. Under Bush's rule, however, the strong federal protection that had extended over the 58.5 million acres will dissipate. The forests will come under state and federal review, with governors having a strong voice on whether new roads should be built and whether mining, logging and energy exploration should commence.

In Nevada, nearly 3.2 million acres of currently roadless forests will be affected. Gov. Kenny Guinn, a Republican, sees the Bush change as a favorable development. " ... I'm in favor of this policy change because I strongly believe in states' rights," Guinn said. Our view, however, is in line with that of Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, our Democratic senator. He is a strong critic of Bush's forest policies. "This action is one of the biggest environmental rollbacks by the Bush administration," Reid said.

We believe that national forests belong to everyone in the country, and that state governors and the big corporations that pressure them should not determine how they are managed. They should not be threatened just because President Bush wants to please his base, the big-monied special interests.