Gov. Acts to Guard State Wilderness

Ending one of his remaining fights with environmentalists, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will ask the federal government today to protect 4.4 million acres of national forests from any new roads for timber, oil or gas exploration or other development.

If approved, the Schwarzenegger plan would allay environmentalists’ fears that national forest land in California would be opened to development, endangering fish and wildlife. The governor’s request was in response to a controversial Bush administration rule that opened millions of “roadless” areas nationwide.

“Having a Republican governor of a western state, with a large amount of roadless areas, stand up to protect all the areas sends an important signal to the rest of the country,” said Sara Barth, California regional director of the Wilderness Society.

Schwarzenegger is scheduled to unveil his plan today at a Capitol news conference. He is effectively embracing a Clinton administration ban on new roads and timber harvesting on national forest land that includes the increasingly crowded Los Padres, Angeles, San Bernardino and Cleveland forests in Southern California.

President Bush canceled the ban in late 2004 and asked each governor to propose specific areas for protection covering 58.5 million acres. Schwarzenegger’s petition is in response to that request.

Separately, the state Resources Agency intends to appeal a plan by the Forest Service to open more than 1 million acres of forest land in Southern California to potential development, administration officials said. A toll road and hydroelectric plant have been proposed at the Cleveland National Forest in Orange County, for example.

California has more than 20 million acres of national forest, about 22% of which is designated undeveloped -- or roadless -- except for hiking and other recreational activities. In Southern California, the forests are important habitat for endangered species such as the California condor, even as housing developments inch closer.

Although environmentalists were generally pleased with Schwarzenegger’s efforts to combat global warming and reduce air pollution, they had remained cautious about the forestry plan because it appeared initially that he could align himself with the Bush administration.

But on Tuesday, Ryan Henson, policy director of the California Wilderness Coalition, said the Schwarzenegger petition gives national forests protections just as strong as the Clinton administration rules. He called the governor’s plan “outstanding.”

Mike Chrisman, Schwarzenegger’s secretary of the Resources Agency, who worked with environmental groups to craft the plan, predicted little trouble getting it approved. “We quite frankly think it’s better than the Clinton plan,” he said.

Not everyone likes the approach Schwarzenegger took. California Atty. Gen. Bill Lockyer and officials of five other states have sued the Bush administration over ending the ban on development in roadless areas. Schwarzenegger declined to join them, preferring to work with federal officials.

Lockyer spokeswoman Teresa Schilling said the attorney general’s office would continue with its lawsuit.

“There is no guarantee the Bush administration will approve the state’s plan or any other state’s plan,” Schilling said.

Four governors in smaller states -- New Mexico, Virginia, South Carolina and North Carolina -- have submitted petitions to end development in designated roadless areas. In total, the federal government expects as many as 15 states to petition for protection of these undeveloped areas, leaving the rest of the states to fight or encourage building through individual forest management plans.

So far, North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia have had their petitions approved by the federal government without major changes.

Mark E. Rey, undersecretary for national resources and environment at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which oversees the national forests, said he didn’t see anything in the Schwarzenegger petition “that makes me believe that we shouldn’t able to work this through to a mutually acceptable conclusion.”

Rey said the fact that California and other states have petitioned to protect their roadless areas shows that predictions about Bush unleashing a torrent of development were unfounded. He said the process is unfolding as planned. “What we have seen now is our vision of the future,” Rey said.

Environmentalists, however, are worried about other states with less conservation-minded governors. Idaho, with the highest acreage of roadless national forest -- more than 9 million acres -- remains without a plan, and environmentalists say development could be allowed in those areas.

The Schwarzenegger petition will be scrutinized by the Department of Agriculture and a review committee before officials decide whether to approve it. Environmentalists said that if it is approved, they would closely monitor how it gets implemented.

“The ball is in their court,” Barth said. “I hope they will view this as the voice of California and the voice of the governor.”