The Roadless Rule Background

            The 2001 Roadless Rule was enacted after a long national process of public comment that found a great number of Americans thought that it was important to formalize the ‘de facto wilderness’ status of some of our public lands. The 2001 Rule, with some exceptions, banned the construction of new roads in the public land that became designated as roadless. Under this rule, 58.5 million acres were protected. The notable exception to the rule was that current resource extraction permits and leases would still be honored, therefore allowing some roads to be built. However, few of these permits and leases exist because many of the roadless areas that remain have minimal value to the extraction industry.

            The Bush administration recently repealed the 2001 Roadless Rule and put into place a new rule whereby roadless areas will have to be redesignated by state. Each state is to have its own decision making process during which the governor, after a period of public comment, will make a recommendation to the Secretary of Agriculture. The Secretary will then make a decision to accept or reject all or part of each petition.

            Many state’s processes have been different. Arnold Schwarzenegger proceeded without public comment and recommended that 100% of California’s roadless areas be protected but  the petition still waits for approval. However, both Virginia and North Carolina’s petitions for 100% protection have been approved. It is now up to those states to formulate their own rule through a full NEPA process.

            Also, since the 2001 Roadless Rule was repealed, new extraction projects have been proposed in formerly roadless areas. The current administration promised to protect these areas as though they were under the 2001 rule until the new rules take effect, but they have broken this promise. It is clear that this new rule has created enough loopholes that the extraction industries will have a crack at exploiting roadless areas before the new rules go into effect, as was probably the intent of the new rule. On its face it seems to provide the possibility of protection for roadless areas, but it makes them vulnerable in the interim to new extraction permit and leases. There is currently a lawsuit underway involving a few states and environmental groups, which challenges the Bush Administration’s authority to change the 2001 Rule.

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