Roadless Area Protection is Desired, Demanded, and Deserved

By Guest Writer, 4-04-06

By Chuck McGuire

As a state agency, the Colorado Division of Wildlife has yet to issue an official stance on how best to administer the state’s Inventoried Roadless Areas (IRAs). Meanwhile, 100 percent of its area managers and field biologists say…keep them roadless.

At a Feb. 10 meeting in Denver, the DOW presented an extensive report to the Roadless Areas Review Task Force (RARTF) ―― a 13-member “bipartisan” group established to help determine the future of Colorado’s IRAs. In part, a summation of the report states, “It is the consensus opinion based on science, local expertise and sound knowledge that all Inventoried Roadless Areas in Colorado should be protected, preserved, enhanced, managed and maintained in a manner that provides the maximum benefit for wildlife and wildlife habitat, and that in-turn can then provide significant return benefits to local and distant citizens and to forest visitors.”

The report was presented in two parts, and is “a document in progress that will continue to grow in size and scope with the Inventoried Roadless Areas Task Force process until the last official Task Force meeting.” The first part generally addresses all of Colorado’s IRAs (as defined by the U.S. Forest Service), and the second discusses explicit characteristics of specific roadless areas.

In all, out of 14.5 million acres of national forest in Colorado, the state has 4.4 million acres of roadless areas and an additional 3.4 million acres of congressionally designated wilderness. Together, according to Trout Unlimited, a non-profit conservation group, these areas “provide the headwaters for almost all of Colorado’s renowned trout fisheries, habitat for the majority of Colorado’s native cutthroat trout populations, and essential seasonal habitat and migration corridors for elk, deer, and other big game animals.”

The intrinsic value of these lands cannot be overstated, but unfortunately, in this era of interminable pursuit of the almighty dollar, their perceived economic values are the subjects of heated debate.

In July 2004, the Bush White House announced its intent to eliminate the Roadless Area Conservation Rule, a regulation issued under the Clinton administration in January 2001 to protect our last remaining wildlands from logging, energy exploration and other invasive activities threatening wildlife and its natural habitat. As adopted, the plan protected 58.5 million acres of pristine forest in 39 states, and, with overwhelming bipartisan support among a majority of Americans, was the most popular rulemaking undertaken in Forest Service history.

To replace it, Bush officials devised a process whereby governors can petition the Forest Service for protection of roadless areas within their states. While the administration touts its proposal as one giving states greater input over forest management, governors already have a right to petition the Forest Service regarding management issues. Further, the procedure demands arduous analyses and reviews, and the federal government retains final say over a governor’s appeal.

Thanks, but no thanks.

Earlier this month, more than 250,000 Americans formally called upon the Bush administration to reinstate the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule. Conservationists, environmentalists, concerned citizens and over a hundred current and former U.S. Olympians employed the Administrative Procedures Act to petition for a policy reversal. In a letter to the Forest Service, group organizers demanded a response to the petition, as required by law.

“The public deserves a medal for stepping up time and again to defend our roadless national forests,” said Robert Vandermark, director of the Heritage Forests Campaign. “While the administration has shut out millions of Americans who previously expressed support for protecting roadless areas, federal law requires it pay attention now.”

Pressure on the White House continues to mount, as a Senate bill sponsored by senators Maria Cantwell (Wash.) and Jeff Bingaman (N.M.) seeks to restore the 2001 roadless rule into federal law. More than a hundred members of Congress introduced a similar bill last July, and a federal suit has been filed on behalf of three state attorneys general and two governors from four western states. Montana and Maine recently filed briefs in support of the suit, and a second legal challenge has also been filed by 20 conservation groups, collectively.

Marty Hayden, legislative director at Earthjustice said, “Expecting the Bush administration to protect pristine forest areas is like asking a shark to be a lifeguard at the local swimming pool. Without national legal protections for roadless areas, we can expect this administration to swing the door wide open for governors who support the timber industry’s desire to squeeze the last remaining dollar out of our national forests.”

Whether federal protection of the nation’s roadless areas will ever return remains in doubt. Even as the roadless rule offered protection to just 30 percent of the nation’s 191 million acres of national forests, lobbyists for the timber industry, oil and gas companies and motorized off-road vehicle groups are salivating over the idea of gaining access to what’s left of our tranquil, relatively untouched, forests and wilderness areas.

And, as nationwide battles rage on, so too, do skirmishes in Colorado.

At a January public meeting in Pueblo, El Paso County Commissioner Jim Bensberg (R-Colorado Springs) addressed an assembly of 300, saying local control over national forests has been declining for decades. “We really resent being dictated to by federal agencies,” he said. “What we need are more, not less, roads and trails.”

Bensberg began his spiel by naming the various off-road motorist clubs he belongs to, then bragged of his attachment to riding motorcycles through national forests. Political sympathizers applauded his comments, but were quickly silenced by the loud booing of a larger opposition.

In today’s fast-paced society, where the term “public” is increasingly interpreted as “mine,” business lobbyists and like-minded activists like Bensberg are growing in number and strength. However, so are the ranks of outdoor enthusiasts who recognize the constant erosion of our public roadless areas as a serious ecological threat to the health of Colorado’s forests and wildlife.

In a 24-page report discussing the economic and biological benefits of roadless areas, Trout Unlimited explains how all three of the state’s native trout species are heavily dependant on clean coldwater streams for their survival.

“Colorado’s cutthroats have been displaced from their native habitat by stocking of non-native trout, over harvest, and habitat degradation via grazing, logging, mining, road building, and water diversion projects,” the report states. “Only backcountry streams, remote enough to largely escape these cumulative impacts, have been able to sustain their native cutthroats.”

The TU report also points out how big game animals, especially elk, benefit from high-elevation roadless areas. “Roadless areas provide a place for elk to escape motorists and motorized hunters,” a passage reads. “Where they are able to utilize roadless habitat, elk can follow more natural seasonal movement patterns, spending more time on public lands and accessing productive foraging grounds.”

The views expressed by TU seem to echo those in the DOW report submitted to the RARTF in February, which stress the opinions of 100 percent of agency field personnel.

“The report is a view of the roadless issue from a wildlife perspective,” said Jim Goodyear, a Denver-area manager with the DOW. “It was compiled by the field operations branch and the wildlife protection branch of the division, the wildlife managers and the biologists.” In other words, it’s founded in science and not just sentiment.

The RARTF will continue gathering public input on the matter before sorting it all out and issuing IRA management recommendations to Gov. Bill Owens in September. The governor will then have until November to petition the U.S. Forest Service with his own recommendations.

While public opinion is currently running three-to-one in favor of keeping Colorado’s roadless areas roadless, the final outcome is far from certain. Gov. Owens appointed five of the 13 members of the Roadless Areas Review Task Force, and as a republican governor, hasn’t exactly been a friend to the environment.

As Mark Squillace, director of the University of Colorado’s Natural Resources Law Center, put it, “No-one honestly expects Owens to protect all of the 2001 areas.”

Chuck McGuire is an outdoor writer and columnist for the Pagosa Springs (Colo.) Sun, where this article first appeared. [End of article]