What's New
On May 24, Rep. Diana DeGette (D – Denver) led the way by joining a bipartisan effort of 141 cosponsors to introduce the Roadless Area Conservation Act in the U.S. House of Representatives. Simultaneously, a bipartisan group of 18 senators introduced the same measure in the U.S. Senate. The Roadless Area Conservation Act speaks to the overwhelming cry from Americans to protect our last wild forests by taking 58.5 million acres of those lands off the chopping block once and for all.
Brief Summary
Colorado’s backcountry provides endless opportunities for outdoor recreation, big-game hunting, and go-anywhere weekend excursions. Unfortunately, only a fraction of these forests remains undisturbed by destructive processes like commercial logging and oil and gas drilling: only 6 percent of Colorado’s roadless forests are now more than 2 miles from a road.
In 2001, with the enactment of the Roadless Area Conservation Rule, over 4.4 million acres of Colorado’s national forest land was protected from this kind of short-term exploitation, preserving it for the enjoyment of countless future generations.
Unfortunately, the Bush administration repealed this rule in 2005 and replaced it with a process that requires governors to create their own state plans for national forest protection and submit them to the federal government for its approval.
However, this process was eventually ruled illegal and in violation of the Endangered Species Act and National Environmental Policy Act, and the protections established by the 2001 Roadless Rule were reinstated by the courts. The decision was a huge victory in the fight to preserve America’s natural heritage, but the Rule remains open to legal challenge, and the solution now lies in convincing our congressional delegation to codify the rule into law by signing on to the National Forest Roadless Area Conservation Act (H.R. 2516).
