A bill introduced in both houses of Congress Thursday would protect 58.5 million acres of wild national forest land from mining, commercial logging, and road-building.
The National Forest Roadless Area Conservation Act, which has 25 original cosponsors in the Senate and 152 bipartisan cosponsors in the House, would put the 2001 Roadless Rule into law.
The 2001 Rule aimed to protect undeveloped land in national forests from logging and the development of new roads, except those needed to fight fires, maintain forest health, and ensure public safety.
Shortly after George W. Bush took office in 2001, the administration stripped away the vital protections provided for in the Roadless Rule.
Since then, the rule has been batted around in the courts, leaving forests from the Rockies to the Appalachians vulnerable to damaging development. On May 28th of this year, Secretary Tom Vilsack issued an order requiring his personal approval for any new logging, drilling, or road-building in nearly 50 million acres of America’s roadless national forests. The bill introduced yesterday would go one step further by making the protections permanent.
“Development of these pristine lands would mean destruction of
important habitats and pollution of much of the air we breathe and the
water we drink, as well as the loss of some of our most beautiful
undisturbed wilderness,” said Alison Adams, the Preservation Associate
at Environment America. “We applaud lead sponsors Senator Maria
Cantwell of Washington and Representative Jay Inslee, also of
Washington, for working to protect these precious areas and preserve
them for future generations.”
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