Editorial: Paved with good intentions

Monday, Sept. 25, 2006 | 7:16 a.m.

Endangered species protection and environmental reviews won out when a California federal judge blocked the Bush administration's efforts to run roughshod over a 2001 Clinton-era ban on logging, road-building and other activities in roadless areas of national forests.

U.S. District Judge Elizabeth Laporte's ruling Wednesday reinstates environmental reviews and protections included under the so-called roadless rule that President Clinton enacted just before leaving office in January 2001. That rule, which prohibits road construction, logging and other development in some 49 million acres of national forests (including 3.1 million acres in Nevada), was enacted after three years of study and some 600 public hearings.

Bush postponed implementation of the Clinton rule, and then last year issued a new policy that calls for governors to submit their own forest management plans to the Forest Service. Those submissions are due in November.

But under the Bush plan, Laporte said, the U.S. Forest Service violated procedures set out by the National Environmental Policy Act, which calls for environmental analysis and submission of alternatives. The Forest Service also failed to work with the agencies responsible for protecting endangered species and habitat. Laporte says the 2001 rule addressed "the inherent problems" of states individually managing their federal forest lands, including "the failure to recognize the cumulative national significance" of such decisions.

Although Bush administration officials disagree with Laporte's logic, they have not decided whether to appeal. In the meantime, the Forest Service is moving ahead with accepting state governors' forest management proposals. But Laporte's ruling makes it clear that those plans must adhere to proper environmental analysis under federal laws that govern habitat and species protection.

As usual, it seems it is clear to everyone except President Bush that federal courts are not going to allow him to sidestep the law. For now, at least, federal policies will continue to uphold what's best for the environment and endangered species rather than promote what's best for Bush's friends in the logging and mining industries.