WASHINGTON -- Protection of the nation's most remote and pristine wilderness would be significantly weakened under a proposal announced by the Bush administration yesterday.
It would make the nation's governors the final barrier against increasing logging and other activity.
The policy, announced by Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman, would lift a ban imposed by former President Clinton on building new roads in national forests, a step that effectively sealed those lands -- including 2 million acres in Washington state -- from commercial activity and all but the most determined hiker.
The new approach, which has broad support from the timber and resource industries as well as many Republican governors and members of Congress, would allow new roads to be built in previously undisturbed areas unless a governor asked that the land remain off-limits. Critics insist the policy would destroy some of the last pristine places in the country.
Although many governors in the West welcomed the proposal, Gov. Gary Locke called it a bad idea.
"Once again the Bush administration has abdicated its leadership on a critical environmental issue," he said. An aide to Locke said the governor would ask the federal government to maintain the protections on all 2 million acres now in the state.
The land is located in the Colville, Gifford Pinchot, Mount Baker-Snoqualmie, Okanogan, Olympic, Wenatchee, Idaho Panhandle and Umatilla national forests.
Although in theory the entire 2 million acres of roadless national forest in Washington could lose its protection under the plan, in reality a smaller amount likely would be affected. Much of the protected land would hold little or no interest to loggers and other developers, because it has little value or would be too expensive to use, according to an industry spokesman.
Veneman described the administration plan as a common-sense path for balancing environmental necessities and commercial pressures and for diminishing "endless lawsuits" that have characterized the so-called "roadless rule" since Clinton put it in place in 2001.
"Our announcements today illustrate our commitment to working closely with the nation's governors to meet the needs of local communities and to maintaining the undeveloped character of the most pristine areas of the national forest system," Veneman said.
Idaho Gov. Dirk Kempthorne, who appeared with Veneman at a news conference in Boise to announce the policy, praised it, saying: "This is the way federal land management should work. Cooperation, not confrontation, should be the hallmark of conservation efforts.
"This new proposal does just that," added Kempthorne, who led the legal challenge against Clinton's roadless policy.
Idaho has 9.3 million acres of national forestland protected under the old rule that could be opened for logging another activity if the new proposal goes into effect.
The rule would replace one adopted by the Clinton administration and still under challenge in federal court. It covers about 58 million of the 191 million acres of national forest nationwide. Before the Bush plan becomes final, it will be subjected to a 60-day public comment period. The Forest Service, which is part of the Agriculture Department, will have to write the regulations for putting it into effect. Those requirements mean it's unlikely the policy would go into effect before the end of the year.
The Bush administration for nearly two years has been weighing changes to the so-called roadless rule, which blocks road construction in nearly one-third of national forests as a way to prevent logging and other commercial activity.
Republicans in Congress, especially those from the West, praised the proposal for easing what they said were overly protective standards.
"It injects common sense and local control into Clinton's eleventh-hour, mindless edict," said Rep. Richard Pombo, R-Calif. "Forest-management decisions should be made at the state level by people who know individual forest conditions best, not by bureaucrats surrounded by concrete in Washington."
Environmentalists, members of Congress and other elected officials, however, immediately condemned Bush's proposal, calling it a sellout to big timber companies and yet another rollback of environmental protections that runs counter to sweeping public support for the original roadless rule.
"This is a very bad decision for the environment," New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson said during a conference call shortly after Veneman announced the plan.
"The Forest Service is essentially taking a hike ... walking away from environmental protection."
Richardson, a Democrat, said he would petition to protect all 1.1 million acres of national forestland the new rules could open in New Mexico and will urge other Western governors to do the same.
"I will petition every single inch," he said. "They should not open these areas, period."
Environmentalists joined the chorus.
"This is the biggest single giveaway to the timber industry in the history of the national forests," said Philip Clapp, president of the National Environmental Trust. "The day the administration's proposal takes effect, every acre of the remaining untouched 30 percent of the national forests will lose protection from logging, mining and oil drilling."
Rep. Jay Inslee, D-Wash., a longtime critic of Bush's approach, disputed Veneman's suggestion that the proposal would adequately protect public forests.
"Shifting the responsibility of federal forests to the states is a risky and absurd policy that will cede the management of federal lands to the whims of individual governors," Inslee said.
As part of the plan, the administration said it would reinstate an interim rule for the next 18 months, requiring that Forest Service chief Dale Bosworth approve any new road construction in previously protected areas.
The administration had let the interim rule lapse last year as it considered a permanent rule to replace the Clinton policy.
Federal judges have twice struck down the roadless rule, most recently in a Wyoming case decided last July. That case, which environmentalists have appealed, is one of several pending legal challenges, complicating efforts to issue a new plan.
Although the roadless rule has prompted intense debate across the nation, it evokes especially strong passions in the West, where the vast majority of the protected areas are found.
Just 12 states contain 56.6 million acres, or 97 percent, of all roadless areas in the country. Those states are Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Wyoming.
"It's about protecting these areas for future generations, to give them the opportunities to recreate, to enjoy the kinds of things we all enjoy being here in Washington state, an hour and a half away from some of these wild areas no matter where you live. That's what it is about," said Tom Uniack, conservation director for Washington Wilderness Coalition.
P-I Washington correspondent Charles Pope can be reached at 202-263-6461 or charliepope@seattlepi.com
