Crowdog
07-26-2002, 06:37 AM
Roadless Act Introduced in the Senate
WASHINGTON, DC, July 25, 2002 (ENS) - Legislation introduced in the U.S. Senate today would enact a Clinton era rule barring new road building on 58.5 million acres of national forests.
The National Forests Roadless Area Conservation Act of 2002 was introduced by a bipartisan group of seven Senators, including Democrats Maria Cantwell of Washington, Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico, Ernest Hollings of South Carolina, John Rockefeller of West Virginia, and Max Cleland of Georgia, along with Republicans John Warner of Virginia, and Lincoln Chaffee of Rhode Island. The House version of the bill, introduced in June, had 178 cosponsors.
"We commend Senators Cantwell and Warner for their leadership on forest protection," said Jane Danowitz, director of the Heritage Forests Campaign, a national alliance of organizations working to protect our national forests. "With timber sales moving forward in the Tongass National Forest and road maintenance backlog at an all time high, expanding bipartisan support for roadless protection couldn't come at a more critical time."
The bill would codify the Roadless Area Conservation Rule, a sweeping land conservation measure introduced under the Clinton administration to protect remaining undeveloped forests from most commercial logging and road building. The incoming Bush administration suspended implementation of the rule, and is considering revisions that would leave far fewer forest acres protected.
Like the roadless rule, the new bill would allow new roads to be constructed in order to fight fires, ensure public safety and provide for thinning to protect forest health.
There are already about 400,000 miles of roads in America's national forests, and a recent report by the group Taxpayers for Common Sense revealed a nationwide backlog of road repairs amounting to $8.4 billion. Sixteen states including Alaska, California, Washington and Michigan each have a backlog of forest road repairs amounting to more than $100 million.
"We should focus on fixing and maintaining existing roads before building more roads to add to the backlog of needed road repairs," said Danowitz.
The roadless rule was approved following years of scientific study and more than 600 public meetings across the country. To date the Forest Service has received more than 2.2 million comments favoring roadless protection - almost 10 times more comments than those generated by any other rule in history.
"Americans deserve this strong bill to protect forests from the Tongass in Alaska to Virginia's Blue Ridge Mountains," said Sierra Club executive director Carl Pope. "These increasingly scarce unspoiled places are crucial for providing quality hunting and fishing, for protecting watersheds that supply clean drinking water, for offering magnificent scenery and providing backcountry recreation, for our families, for our future."
"The administration has voiced support for forest protection while consistently working to undermine it, planning to move forward with dozens of timber sales and other destructive projects in wild roadless forests," Pope added. "The Roadless Area Conservation Act turns forest protection rhetoric into reality."
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http://ens-news.com/ens/jul2002/2002-07-25-09.asp#anchor1
WASHINGTON, DC, July 25, 2002 (ENS) - Legislation introduced in the U.S. Senate today would enact a Clinton era rule barring new road building on 58.5 million acres of national forests.
The National Forests Roadless Area Conservation Act of 2002 was introduced by a bipartisan group of seven Senators, including Democrats Maria Cantwell of Washington, Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico, Ernest Hollings of South Carolina, John Rockefeller of West Virginia, and Max Cleland of Georgia, along with Republicans John Warner of Virginia, and Lincoln Chaffee of Rhode Island. The House version of the bill, introduced in June, had 178 cosponsors.
"We commend Senators Cantwell and Warner for their leadership on forest protection," said Jane Danowitz, director of the Heritage Forests Campaign, a national alliance of organizations working to protect our national forests. "With timber sales moving forward in the Tongass National Forest and road maintenance backlog at an all time high, expanding bipartisan support for roadless protection couldn't come at a more critical time."
The bill would codify the Roadless Area Conservation Rule, a sweeping land conservation measure introduced under the Clinton administration to protect remaining undeveloped forests from most commercial logging and road building. The incoming Bush administration suspended implementation of the rule, and is considering revisions that would leave far fewer forest acres protected.
Like the roadless rule, the new bill would allow new roads to be constructed in order to fight fires, ensure public safety and provide for thinning to protect forest health.
There are already about 400,000 miles of roads in America's national forests, and a recent report by the group Taxpayers for Common Sense revealed a nationwide backlog of road repairs amounting to $8.4 billion. Sixteen states including Alaska, California, Washington and Michigan each have a backlog of forest road repairs amounting to more than $100 million.
"We should focus on fixing and maintaining existing roads before building more roads to add to the backlog of needed road repairs," said Danowitz.
The roadless rule was approved following years of scientific study and more than 600 public meetings across the country. To date the Forest Service has received more than 2.2 million comments favoring roadless protection - almost 10 times more comments than those generated by any other rule in history.
"Americans deserve this strong bill to protect forests from the Tongass in Alaska to Virginia's Blue Ridge Mountains," said Sierra Club executive director Carl Pope. "These increasingly scarce unspoiled places are crucial for providing quality hunting and fishing, for protecting watersheds that supply clean drinking water, for offering magnificent scenery and providing backcountry recreation, for our families, for our future."
"The administration has voiced support for forest protection while consistently working to undermine it, planning to move forward with dozens of timber sales and other destructive projects in wild roadless forests," Pope added. "The Roadless Area Conservation Act turns forest protection rhetoric into reality."
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http://ens-news.com/ens/jul2002/2002-07-25-09.asp#anchor1