The Bush Administration announced a scheme today that would
effectively overturn the Roadless Area Conservation Rule. The 2001
rule protected 58.5 million acres of pristine roadless lands on
America's national forests from roadbuilding and commercial logging.
And the American people have repeatedly declared their support for
these protections: 2.5 million times in the last four years!

The administration has never liked the rule, has refused to defend it
in court (despite promises to do so) and a year ago exempted our
largest national forest, the Tongass in Alaska, from the rule's
protection. Today it went whole hog.

The new scheme would force governors to petition the federal
government to protect the last remaining pristine forests in their
states. The process officials described today is convoluted,
meaningless, and mostly political camouflage: reduced to its basics,
the plan is an outright repeal of the roadless rule.