Red Lodge Clearinghouse

The lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Idaho accuses the Forest Service of improperly approved the state-crafted roadless rule that they claim would remove protection for 400,000 acres and weaken protections for another 5 millions acres.

Idaho is the only state to complete its own roadless rule following the Bush administration's decision to throw out the 2001 Clinton roadless rule, which granted blanket protection to about 58 million acres nationwide. Colorado also opted to produce its own roadless rule, but the plan is still in development.

The Idaho plan, which was finalized last month, created five "management themes" for individual areas, a strategy meant to balance the needs for conservation with access and development in roadless areas.

Hunters, fishers and some conservation groups support the plan, with some touting the collaborative process that produced the rule as a model for other states.

But environmental groups that filed the lawsuit say the plan should be suspended because the Forest Service failed to conduct environmental analyses required under the National Environmental Policy Act.

"The 2001 Roadless Conservation Rule established long overdue, unified protection for our roadless forests and set the national standards," said Niel Lawrence of the Natural Resources Defense Council. "The Bush administration not only undercut those protections in Idaho, it overran key environmental protection laws in the process."

Many of the groups involved in the lawsuit were among those calling on President-elect Barack Obama last week to make reinstating the Clinton roadless rule one of his first priorities after his inauguration tomorrow.

Obama expressed his support for the Clinton roadless rule during his presidential campaign. Advocates say he could issue a directive giving the Forest Service chief, rather than local officials, decision-making power over designated roadless areas (Greenwire, Jan. 12).

But John McCarthy, the Wilderness Society's Idaho forest campaign director, said even if Obama reinstates the Clinton rule, it's unlikely to affect Idaho's plan.

The lawsuit's aim, he said, is to prove the plan's environmental protections are inadequate, which could force planners to reexamine the rule. "What we're trying to say is if the Obama administration takes action, we want to make sure Idaho is part of it," he said.

A Forest Service spokeswoman said the agency had not seen the lawsuit and could not comment.

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