Carly Kruse

September 25, 2006

On September 20, 2006, U.S. Magistrate Judge Elizabeth D. Laporte ruled that the Bush Administration's efforts to undermine Clinton's "Roadless Rule" violated both the Endangered Species Act (ESA) and the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).

In 2001, the U.S. Forest Service issued Clinton's proposed Roadless Rule to protect nearly 60 million acres of national forests from logging and mining. Last year, however, the Bush Administration implemented a state-oriented approach that required governors to petition the federal government to protect certain roadless lands within their states. Governors from Washington, Oregon, California, and New Mexico, plus environmental groups, sued the U.S. Forest Service over the new rule.

Judge Laporte found that the Bush Administration's rule disregarded the ESA and NEPA by opening up otherwise protected land to development without studying its effects on protected species or the environment.

Oregon Governor Ted Kulongoski said the ruling will allow states to work better with the U.S. Forest Service to address forests at risk of wildfires. However timber industry representatives say that the decision may leave forests more vulnerable to wildfires. Despite Laporte's order that the Forest Service stop "any further action contrary to the roadless rule without undertaking environmental analysis," logging will continue in Alaska's Tongass National Forest because other legal opinions define its use. Logging will also continue over Gov. Kulongoski's objections in areas of the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forests in Oregon that courts already upheld.

Dave Tenny, the deputy undersecretary for the Department of Agriculture, said the Bush Administration has not decided whether or not it would appeal the court's decision. The Ninth Circuit has upheld the Roadless Rule previously in Kootenai Tribe of Idaho v. Veneman, when landowners located near protected forests sued to prevent the implementation of the Roadless Rule.

For More Information:

Felicity Barringer, Judge Voids Bush Policy on National Forest Roads, N.Y. Times, September 21, 2006, available at http://nytimes.com/2006/09/21/washington/21roads.html (last visited September 22, 2006).

The Associated Press, Judge Restores Clinton's "Roadless Rule", N.Y. Times, September 21, 2006, available at http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Roadless-Forests.html?_r=l&oref=slogin (last visited September 22, 2006).

Michael Milstein, Roadless ruling a blow to Bush administration, The Oregonian, September 21, 2006, available at http://www.oregonlive.com/search/index.ssf?/base/news/115880914115780.xml?oregonian?lctop&coll=7

Blaine Harden and Juliet Eilperin, Bush Dealt Setback On Opening Forests: Judge Overturns Changes in Rules, Washington Post, September 21, 2006, available at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/20/AR2006092001660.html (last visited September 22, 2006).

People ex rel. Lockyer v. U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, 2006 WL 870732 (N.D. Cal. 2006).

Kooteni Tribe of Idaho v. Veneman, 313 F.3d 1094 (9th Cir. 2002).