DENVER—Today
conservation and sportsman groups, as well as private land owners,
called on Forest Service Chief Dale Bosworth to place a moratorium on
logging, mining, drilling and road-building in roadless areas.
In
a September 2005 New York Times letter-to-the-editor, Under Secretary
of Agriculture Mark Rey wrote, “We are providing interim protection to
roadless areas, pending the development of state-specific rules
provided for in our 2005 rulemaking.”
Instead, the Forest Service is allowing extraction proposals to move forward, such as:
• HD Mountains Coalbed Methane projects in the HD Mountains Roadless Area, San Juan National Forest
• Natural gas leasing in Thompson Creek and Reno Mountain Roadless Areas, White River National Forest
• Oil and natural gas leases in the Springhouse Creek and Battlement
Mesa Roadless Areas, Grand Mesa-Uncomphagre-Gunnison National Forests
“Today,
we call on Chief Bosworth to keep his promise and grant interim
protection to Colorado’s roadless forests” said Matt Garrington, field
organizer for Environment Colorado. “Colorado’s last wild forests are
an important part of our natural heritage and should be protected from
these threats.”
Environment
Colorado was one of thirteen conservation organizations that signed a
letter calling on interim protection for roadless areas in Colorado’s
National Forests.
In
a public statement today, Brian O’Donell, the Durango-based public
lands director of Trout Unlimted, discussed the need for protecting all
of Colorado’s roadless forests.
“Roadless
areas provide vital habitat for fish and wildlife and outstanding
fishing and hunting opportunities. Sportsmen want to keep them like
they are,” said O’Donell.
Janine
Fitzgerald of Bayfield is a landowner who farms near the HD Mountains
roadless areas where oil and gas leasing could occur as early as this
summer.
“The
HD Mountains is our lifeblood and the watershed for our community,”
said Fitzgerald. “Road building could cause massive soil erosion and
affect the mountains springs we need.”
“Private
landowners are harmed by irresponsible oil drilling,” continued
Fitzgerald. “When wildlife lose habitat on roadless forests, they are
pushed down on our lands.”
Since
taking office, the Bush administration has steadily undermined the 2001
Roadless Area Conservation Rule, an initiative to protect the last
pristine 58.5 million acres of national forests from most logging,
road-building and other development. A policy put in place last year
created a process requiring governors to petition the Forest Service if
they wished keep roadless protections in place in their states.
“Allowing
natural gas leasing in Thompson Creek is another example of the
Administration saying one thing and doing exactly the opposite," says
Sloan Shoemaker, Executive Director of the Wilderness Workshop. “Its
disingenuous to tell states and local communities that they have the
opportunity to be heard while at the same time promoting development
that forever forecloses the option of protecting roadless areas."
In
Colorado, the Governor and state legislative leaders appointed a
bipartisan Roadless Areas Review Task Force that is currently gathering
public input and will make an official recommendation this fall as to
whether Governor Owens should petition to protect Colorado’s roadless
forests.
“It’s unfair for the Bush Administration to present the task force with a moving target,” said Garrington.
Opposition
to rolling back protections for roadless areas in National Forests is
taking many forms. In late February 2006, more than a quarter of a
million Americans used the Administrative Procedures Act to petition
the Department of Agriculture to reinstate the original rule.
Nationally,
the Heritage Forests Campaign also released a report today outlining
threats to roadless areas across the nation which can be found at
www.ourforests.org.
Additional
opposition was expressed by outdoor recreation companies, like
Patagonia and The North Face. In a letter to Forest Service chief Dale
Bosworth, they said, “In order to ensure that no actions are taken
which might preclude a full range of options for protection of these
areas, we write to request that the Forest Service agree to avoid
proposing projects in inventoried roadless areas that would alter the
roadless qualities of the areas, and to halt and withdraw all such
projects under development.”
Additional Contacts
Sloan Shoemaker, Wilderness Workshop
(970) 963-3977
Brian O’Donnell, Trout Unlimited
(970) 375-9022
