Judge Blocks Roadless Forest Policy

A federal judge in Idaho blocked a new regulation Thursday that would have banned road building and logging in 58.5 million acres of remote national forests across the country.

In issuing a preliminary injunction on the “roadless rule,” U.S. District Judge Edward J. Lodge in Boise simultaneously rebuked the administration of former President Clinton, which drafted the rule, as well as the Bush administration, which supported it in principle but planned to amend it.

The rule, which had been scheduled to go into effect Saturday, would have prohibited road construction and commercial logging in large swaths of federal forest where there currently are no roads, protecting the forests as wilderness areas. The measure was opposed by timber, oil and gas interests, as well as by a number of Western states, because it would restrict use of the land.

Group Will Appeal Judge’s Decision

In his opinion, the judge stated that the rule would “result in irreparable harm to the national forests” by prohibiting some management techniques, such as controlled burns and selective logging to thin overgrown forests.

But a lawyer for the environmental group Earthjustice said the organization would appeal Lodge’s decision.

“You don’t harm the environment by protecting it,” attorney Doug Honnold said. Earthjustice is fighting to protect the rule on behalf of several environmental groups.

“We will be glad to fight it in the courts,” Honnold said. “We think it is a decision that is inconsistent with environmental rules.”

The Bush administration was reviewing the judge’s decision Thursday and had not yet announced whether it also would seek an appeal. The government has 60 days to decide.

Reacting to the ruling, Agriculture Secretary Ann M. Veneman said her department would move forward with its efforts to revise the roadless policy to take into consideration some of the complaints of the judge and the plaintiffs but would not abandon its commitment to protecting these backwoods areas. The amended plan is expected to be completed next month.

“The administration is committed to providing roadless protection for our national forests,” she said.

Idaho Gov. Dirk Kempthorn, who was the lead plaintiff in the suit, praised the judge for stopping a policy that he said “posed serious risks to both federal forest lands and neighboring state lands by restricting active management.”

The state’s attorney general, Al Lance, argued with environmentalists’ contention that by stopping the roadless rule the judge is hurting the forests.

“It would be wrong to characterize the court’s decision as bad for the environment,” Lance said. “Even if the roadless rule is ultimately overturned, nothing changes. There are no bulldozers idling at the forests’ edge. Blocking this illegal rule will not force anyone to build a road.”

Mike Moser, a spokesman for timber giant Boise Cascade, a party to the lawsuit, said the company maintained all along that “the roadless rule was predetermined and one-sided and failed to consider the long-term consequences for managing the health of the national forests.”

In the absence of the rule, national forest supervisors will make case-by-case decisions about how to manage their forests and whether to allow roads or logging. Environmentalists made it clear that they will continue to fight to keep steamrollers and chain saws out of the forests.

“This returns us to the war of the woods that existed before the roadless policy,” said Honnold, stressing that environmentalists were ready to legally challenge each decision made by forest supervisors to allow logging and road building in the roadless areas.

But there was no doubt that environmentalists saw the decision as a huge blow for the national forests.

“It’s the difference between having a nationwide policy that protects roadless areas and having a free-for-all,” Honnold said.

Bush Plan Called a ‘Band-Aid’ Approach

In his decision, Lodge criticized the Bush administration’s announcement last week on the roadless policy as a “Band-Aid approach.” Veneman said last week that the administration would stand behind the goals of the roadless policy but revise it to give communities a greater say in the fate of their neighboring national forests and provide better maps of the boundaries of the roadless areas.

The judge called her assurances “vague” and stressed that they did not adequately address his earlier criticisms of the rule. In an earlier order on the same case, Lodge said the Clinton administration failed to allow adequate public comment when it drafted the rule.

The Bush administration’s plan to amend the rule, he said, did not amount to a guarantee that the defects in the policy would be fixed.

Lodge stressed that he did not intend to preclude or dissuade the Bush administration from going forward with its plan to amend the rule. But in the meantime, he said, the rule as currently drafted had to be stopped.

“Once something of this magnitude is set in motion, momentum is irresistible, options are closed and agency commitments, if not set in concrete, will be the subject of litigation for years to come,” the judge said.