The last 58.5 million acres of untouched national forests were opened to possible logging, mining and other commercial uses by the Bush administration on Thursday.
Two million acres of national forests are in Washington state. About a quarter of that is in the Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest, and includes about 80 percent of the proposed Wild Sky Wilderness north of Index, said Tom Uniack of the Washington Wilderness Coalition.
Environmentalists see the move as a push for short-term profits for industry at the expense of clean drinking water, wildlife habitat and recreational opportunities.
It is also a potential threat to the Wild Sky Wilderness plan, which is undergoing scrutiny in Congress for the third time.
“If you want to keep it the same, you better make it a wilderness,” Uniack said.
New rules from the U.S. Forest Service cover some of the most pristine federal land in 38 states and Puerto Rico. Ninety-seven percent of it is in 12 states: Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Wyoming.
Governors can submit petitions within 18 months to stop road building on some of the 34.3 million acres where it would now be permitted, or request that new forest management plans be written to allow construction on some of the other 24.2 million acres.
Many officials made it clear much of the land will remain untouched.
“We have no plans to build roads in the roadless areas of the national forests in California. … Areas are roadless here for a reason,” said Matt Mathes, a regional spokesman for the Forest Service in California.
Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns said his agency, which oversees the Forest Service, will work closely with governors “to meet the needs of our local communities while protecting and restoring the health and natural beauty of our national forests.”
Democrats questioned why governors were getting so much power over land use.
“Trees, wildlife and fish don’t respect state boundaries, and I don’t think decisions about management of roadless areas – or other parts of the national forests – should be based on those lines, either,” said U.S. Rep. Mark Udall, D-Colo.
Eight days before leaving office in 2001, President Clinton acted to take roadless forestland away from local federal managers. Environmentalists said the managers often were too close to logging companies and developers.
“Any short-term economic gain that would result from turning over these areas to corporate special interests is significantly outweighed by the economic benefit of keeping them intact,” said Steve Smith, The Wilderness Society’s assistant regional director for Utah, Arizona, Colorado and New Mexico.
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