Roadless Rule Revisited: Major Rewrite Pushed

On January 5, 2001, former President Clinton unveiled the national forest roadless policy entitled, the Roadless Area Conservation Rule. It provided significantly increased protection for nearly 60 million acres in U.S. national forests. This was a big step. In one action, protection was created for as much land as is contained within three-quarters of the National Park System.

When this rule was finalized in January, the rule called for ending nearly all logging, road building, and new coal, gas, oil and other mineral leasing in 58.5 million acres of the wildest remaining national forests lands. The January rule was the direct result of a tremendous outpouring of public support, including many faith-based letters and testimony from members of the religious community. Over 600 public hearings were held around the nation, and people sent in over 1.6 million comments - more than for any other federal rule in the nation's history.

Ever since policy changes protecting roadless areas were first contemplated, the timber industry and its political allies have staged a relentless legal and political effort to block any and all progress. They've files suits in courts all across the country.

Despite the Bush Administration's public statement that the roadless rule would not be over turned, government attorneys have not defended the policy in the courts, leaving it to various environmental organizations to do the job.

Now, the Bush Administration is moving to severally rewrite the rule and its protections. They have asked for public comments regarding their intention to weaken the rule, so harmful activities, such a logging and new coal, gas, oil and other mineral development, could proceed in Roadless areas that were protected by the January rule. Their actions put millions of acres of precious lands at risk - lands that serve as habitat for threatened and endangered species, provide quality recreational opportunities, ensure clean drinking water, and offer a rare glimpse of magnificent nature as God created it.

Within the United States, approximately 190 million acres of national forests exist. About half of these have been seriously affected by logging, mining, road building, and other ecologically damaging activities. Such damage has occurred under a forest-by-forest decision making process. The Bush Administration has indicated that it wishes vital Roadless areas to continue to be subject to this forest-by-forest decision making. These pristine places - some of the few wild areas that remain - are too precious to be subject to local industrial pressures without an extra blanket of protection. This is what the Roadless rul as finalized in January 2001 provides. The Roadless rule does not disrupt forest-by-forest decision making for national forests overall, but provides an extra layer of protection for the most pristine parts of these forests.

The Administration appears to be capitulating to the timber industry and other development interests despite overwhelming public support for protecting our wild forests. The Roadless rule affects less than a third of national forest lands and has no effect on existing oil and gas leasing in national forests. But even though industry already has access to so many of our national forest lands, it continues to demand more access for logging, mining and road building.

Research documents the crucial ecological role of unroaded and undeveloped areas, quite apart from their aesthetic and recreational values to the public. As the landscapes least altered by human activity, they are generally our most healthy and resilient ecosystems, and increasingly important factor as global warming stresses natural systems. They have intact soil resources and low susceptibility to introduce tree diseases and insect attacks, compared to roaded and logged areas. Without road access, they also have suffered less from the adverse effect of fire suppression. These characteristics make them essential as benchmarks for research on ecological processes and as controls for management agency experiments in the restoration of degraded ecosystems on other federal lands.

Undeveloped areas have been spared the increased erosion associated with road building, logging, and other forms of development, which causes damaging sedimentation of streams and rivers. These roadless areas therefore harbor some of the country's most intact aquatic ecosystems, and play a critical role in efforts to bring about the recovery of imperiled stocks of salmon and other fish. The clean flows they provide are important not only to aquatic organisms, but also as sources of drinking water (42 million acres of national forest land are classifies as municipal watersheds). And particularly where forested, these areas help regulate stream flows and reduce flood threats, absorbing excess waters during storm events and releasing them slowly over time.

The instruction to care for creation is found in Scripture as well as other religious and ethical teaching. The earth belongs to God (Psalm 24:1, Leviticus 25:23, Isaiah 41:20), and God has declared that the totality of creation is "very good" (Genesis 1:31). We are tenants called 'to till and keep" the garden (Genesis 2:15). It is often in wild places, such as pristine forests, that we encounter creation's sheer magnificence. There, in awe and serenity, our hearts turn to God. We praise God for all the goodness we have received; we are "glad and rejoice, for the Lord has done marvelous things" (Joel 2:21). It would be sad to deny to future generations wild forest areas that offer this opportunity for spiritual sustenance and growth.

In a recent statement by this year's General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA), commissioners approved a policy statement entitled, " A Call to Halt Mass Extinction," and stated, "The 213th General Assembly (2201) of the Presbyterian Church (USA)…Calls upon the United States Congress and the Bush Administration, particularly the Environmental Protection Agency, the Forest Service, and the Interior Department (especially its Fish and Wildlife Service), and also the governments of the states to refrain from or turn back all efforts to abolish or undercut established policies and recent initiatives to protect endangered species, to preserve wetlands, to restore the Florida Everglades, to minimize road building in national forests, and to preserve roadless wilderness areas."

Communications from the religious community have already made major differences in the roadless issue. Now, advocates are encouraged to help the Bush Administration see that it should leave the Roadless rule alone. The message is clear, "Tell the Bush Administration that you support the original Roadless Area Conservation Rule by signing and mailing a statement to the Forest Service. A sample letter is provided below - be sure to add a few sentences of your own, the Forest Service will count your views as higher quality comment, as opposed to a standard form letter or postcard.

Since the Bush Administration is unfriendly to the Roadless rule, the Washington-based religious community believes that it is important to have proof of the positive comme nts that are submitted. Therefore, instead of sending your letter directly to the Forest Service, we are asking you to send it through the following person. Your contact information will not be given to others or entered into any organizational fundraising data base. An active Quaker, Suellen Lowry has been involved in the Roadless issue since the beginning and is affiliated with Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund, the Christian Environmental Council, and Friends Committee on Unity with Nature/Quaker Eco Witness. Before September 4, please send your letter(s) to Suellen Lowry via on of the following: 1628 Hyland Street, Bayside, CA 95524; suellen@northcoast.com ; or (707) 822.3648 (Fax).

Sample Letter -

Dear U.S. Forest Service:

I am writing in response to questions you have posed regarding the intention of the Bush Administration to modify the Roadless Area Conservation Rule your agency just finalized in January 2001.

I strongly support the protection of these pristine forests - as do more than 95 percent of the 1.6 million Americans who have already commented on this policy in a fair and open process. Please work with us by forgoing efforts to weaken this landmark conservation achievement with modifications, exemptions, or deletions.

I am gravely concerned about your proposal to allow this conservation legacy to be modifies on a forest-by-forest basis. Vast tracks of logged and roaded national forest landscapes underscore the failure of the forest-by-forest planing process to protect these areas. Moreover, the January 12 rule already contains exemptions to protect forest health, communities, homes and poverty. Furthermore, the existing rule contains assurances for the valid existing rights of individual landowners, states or tribes to access their lands.

Over a million people have already communicated the values they believe most important in this deliberation: protection of pristine forests for our children and future generations. We believe roadless areas are too important as vital sources for clean water, quality recreation, and fish and wildlife habitat for the roadless rule to be changed. Many of us also feel a responsibility to protect these wild areas as magnificent examples of God's handiwork and as part of a stewardship obligation set forth in our faith traditions.

Please safeguard the last 30 percent of our wild national forests from logging, road building, and other damaging activities by immediately implementing the existing roadless rule on all national forests, including Alaska's Tongass Rainforest.

(Add your own words here)

Sincerely,