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Executive Summary
After decades of scientific
inquiry, 600 public hearings, and a record 1.6 million comments, the Clinton
administration enacted the Roadless Area Conservation Rule in January 2001 to
protect 58.5 million acres of wild national forest land from most commercial
logging and road-building. The Roadless Rule ensures that our national forests
will continue to provide clean drinking water for millions of Americans, wildlife
habitat, endless recreational opportunities, and other important values. The
rule also allows the U.S. Forest Service to address the estimated $10.3 billion
backlog in needed roads maintenance instead of using taxpayer dollars to build
new roads.
The American people have
spoken in favor of protecting roadless areas within our national forests. If
the volume of their voices could be measured by the comments already sent to
the Clinton and Bush administrations, the roar would be deafening. Prior to
the 2004 comment period, California residents had submitted 187,695 comments
in favor of protecting the state's 4.4 million acres of roadless land.
Fully understanding the
public's dedication to protecting roadless areas requires looking at their myriad
economic and ecological benefits:
- Sixty million Americans
rely on drinking water from the national forests. Roadless areas, for their
pristine and road-free condition, provide some of the purest of that water.
In the Pacific Southwest Forest Service Region, which includes California, drinking
water is worth $944.3 million annually.
- Non-motorized recreation
has become more and more popular over time as Americans participate in everything
from bicycling to hunting in roadless areas. In 2001, 6.9 million California
residents took part in hunting, fishing, and wildlife-watching, contributing
$5.7 billion to the state economy.
- America's wildlife has
seen much of its habitat lost to development in recent decades. Some of the
most unspoiled habitat for hundreds of threatened, endangered, and declining
species is found in roadless areas. California's national forests are home to
66 at-risk species that could be harmed by destruction of roadless areas.
Despite the enormous benefits
of national forests, historically, their value has been pegged to the timber
products they provide. The Forest Service, however, has sold national forest
land to timber companies at such low cost that the agency loses millions of
dollars each year.
National forests are federal
lands that belong to all Americans and deserve federal protection. Unfortunately,
the Bush administration has proposed repealing the Roadless Rule and replacing
it with a meaningless process that allows governors to seek protections for
roadless areas in their states—or seek logging, mining, and drilling for
these pristine forests instead. Even if a governor seeks protections, the Forest
Service could still refuse the proposal.
In addition to repealing
the Roadless Rule, the Bush administration has proposed a dramatic change in
the way all of our national forests are managed. At issue are new regulations
for the National Forest Management Act, the law that requires each of the 155
national forests to have a management plan in place. The draft regulations the
administration proposed in December 2002 would weaken environmental and wildlife
protections and limit the public's ability to participate in decisions that
affect our national forests. Moreover, the Bush administration has already pushed
through numerous harmful policies, including the so-called Healthy Forests Restoration
Act, which increases logging under the guise of fighting forest fires.
Before finalizing the proposal
to repeal the Roadless Rule, the administration has two choices: it can continue
pandering to timber companies, mining companies, and energy companies that stand
to make millions in the short term at taxpayers' expense, or it can choose to
heed public opinion and preserve roadless areas to ensure that generations to
come enjoy the same benefits that we have.
The right decision seems
clear. Without question, roadless areas are one of the nation's greatest natural
assets; their ecological and economic value is too great to sacrifice.
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