Forests Forever Press Release


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE


July 27, 2006


Contact:
Paul Hughes, executive director: (415) 974-4201; paul@forestsforever.org
Marc Lecard, communications manager: (415) 974-4202; marc@forestsforever.org

Federal Court to Hear Arguments for Protecting Roadless Areas


What: Roadless Rule Repeal hearing

When: Tuesday, August 1, 9:00 a.m.

Where: Courtroom E, Fifteenth Floor
Federal Building
450 Golden Gate Ave.
San Francisco, CA

Who: Magistrate Judge Elizabeth Laporte
Attorneys for states of California, Oregon, Washington, New Mexico
Attorneys for environmental organizations
Attorneys for the U.S. Department of Justice

Why: States and conservation groups will present arguments explaining why the Bush administration’s 2005 repeal of the immensely popular roadless area protection rule violates the law.

The states and conservation groups are asking the court to find the Bush repeal invalid and to reinstate the Roadless Rule. The 2005 Roadless Repeal, adopted with no environmental analysis and limited public input, replaced a Clinton-era rule adopted in January 2001 after a three-year process that included 600 public hearings and 1.6 million public comments.

In addition to repealing the roadless rule, the Bush rule invites governors to submit petitions recommending management schemes for the national forests in their states. To date, five states (Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, New Mexico, and California) have lodged such petitions, and all call for protection for all roadless areas in their states. None of these petitions have yet been granted.

Other states, including Oregon and Colorado, that have not yet petitioned, are facing Bush administration plans to log or develop oil and gas in roadless areas.

If the court agrees with the states’ and conservation groups’ arguments, 58.5 million acres of roadless public forests across the country could once again be protected against road building and logging.

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Forests Forever:
Their Ecology, Restoration, and Protection
by
John J. Berger

NOW AVAILABLE
from Forests Forever Foundation
and the Center for American Places