ROADLESS WITHOUT A MAP
Hazy Horizon for West’s Roadless Lands
By David Frey, 3-06-08
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A decade after the federal government sought to ban new roads on millions of acres of national forest across the country, the future of those lands remains in question.
Despite legal battles, the Clinton administration’s roadless rule is the law of the land again. But it faces another court challenge, this time from Wyoming. Two other states – Idaho and Colorado – are proposing their own weaker rules for within their borders.
Meanwhile, the Bush administration, which sought to undo the roadless protections, is on its way out, likely to be replaced by a new administration less environmentally hostile. The result is a messy future for roadless lands across the West, and one filled with ironies in a region divided over how to care for its public lands.
“I think that there is a public consensus around preserving open spaces for all their values, and roadless areas are one way to proceed,” says Doug Scott, policy director for the Campaign for America’s Wilderness.
A longtime champion of wilderness protection, Scott recalls seeing a 1937 map – the first ever to chart roadless lands. “A lot of them are mere shadows of themselves,” he says. “It’s not that they’re parking lots. It’s that they’ve been fragmented.”
Some 58.5 million acres of Forest Service land is considered free of roads. Among them:
- scenic grizzly habitat in Standard Peak Roadless Area, Flathead National Forest, Montana
- ancient lodgepole pines in Rock Creek Roadless Area, Medicine Bow National Forest, Wyoming
- prime river habitat in North Lochsa Slope Roadless Area, Clearwater National Forest, Idaho
- old-growth ponderosa landscapes in HD Mountains Roadless Area, San Juan National Forest, Colorado
Environmentalists are fighting to preserve those remaining lands, the first places they look to create more wilderness. These lands are not all considered wilderness-worthy, Scott says, but they are often key wildlife habitat.
That has helped forge an alliance among environmentalists, hunters and anglers who want to see these wild lands preserved from roads, logging operations and gas leases.
“While sportsmen and environmentalists have unfortunately never been allies, now we are saying the same things,” says Dave Petersen, Colorado field director for Trout Unlimited.
The Clinton administration first proposed a ban on new roads in the untracked backcountry in January 1998. It went into effect in January 2001, as the administration was packing its boxes and the Bush administration was moving in.
Idaho went to court to block the rule. Alaska, Utah, Wyoming, North Dakota and several timber companies followed. The Bush administration did away with the roadless rule in 2005. In its place, it offered states a chance to petition for roadless protections to remain.
The result in many states was a wave of popular support for roadless lands.
“Even the most conservative lifetime Republican sportsmen, a huge number of them, just jumped ship and said, ‘We’ve had enough,’” Petersen said. “‘We need to save our piece of the pie and (Bush) is ruining the hunting and fishing for our kids and grandkids and us.’”
Roadless supporters packed hearings across the Colorado. “That message came through really clear, and it didn’t waver,” says Steve Smith, assistant regional director for The Wilderness Society, who like Petersen was a member of a Colorado task force charged with drafting roadless recommendations. “People didn’t change their attitude about roadless areas. It once again affirmed these places needed to be protected.”
California, New Mexico, Oregon and Washington sued to reinstate the rule, and in 2006, a California judge agreed. (The Bush administration exempted 9.3 million acres in Alaska’s Tongass National Forest, though). Environmentalists rejoiced, but it hasn’t ended the legal battles. Last year, Wyoming went to court to challenge the law again.
“The best way to make forest decisions is on the local level where the forest supervisors, with the advice of district rangers, can make decisions with on-the-ground knowledge and the best science available,” says Mark Toft, natural resource policy analyst for Wyoming Gov. Dave Freudenthal, a Democrat.
Many of the areas deemed roadless in Wyoming were based on old maps and actually have roads on them, Toft says. “We’re not opposed to there being wilderness areas in particular spots, but we think those kinds of determinations should be made as local as possible.”
The shifting legal landscape has made for strange ironies.
- While Wyoming fights the rule, Freudenthal secured a roadless agreement last month with the Forest Service. It temporarily blocks gas drilling in roadless areas in the Bridger-Teton and Shoshone national forests.
- Idaho was the first to fight the roadless rule, but its petition creates a tough roadless policy of its own.
- Colorado’s former Gov. Bill Owens, R, submitted a roadless plan that was praised for protecting most areas. Environmentalists blasted his successor, Bill Ritter, D, though, accusing him of weakening roadless protections when he decided to largely stick with that plan.
- Utah, under pressure from the outdoor industry, reversed its controversial plan to drop roadless protections altogether and instead is adhering to the roadless rule.
With the federal roadless rule in place again, environmentalists in Idaho and Colorado would like to see their states put aside their petitions, as other states have done.
“Back off. Just drop the whole mess,” says Craig Gehrke, regional director of The Wilderness Society in Idaho. “Just stick with the 2001 rule. This whole fight for roadless areas is needless.”
Idaho’s petition cuts out about 500,000 roadless acres, but the state promised to keep protections in place for the remainder of 9 million acres. Gehrke worries wildfire provisions weaken the proposal, though, by giving the state more “wiggle room” to blaze roads.
“They’re backsliding on it,” he says.
A similar battle is taking place in Colorado. Environmentalists are pressing Ritter, who has spoken in favor of roadless protections, to stick with the federal rule.
“This is an insurance policy for the state, should the rule be overturned,” says Paul Orbuch, assistant director of the state Department of Natural Resources.
“Right now the Clinton rule is in effect, which is pretty restrictive, so those prohibitions are on the books right now,” he says. “Should that rule get overturned, which could happen anytime the way things go, the state would have to give its permission for any activities in roadless areas.”
Colorado’s plan has kept most roadless protections in place, but it made exceptions for ski areas, grazing, timber, mining, gas drilling and other uses. Ritter has made some changes that give the state more oversight, but environmentalists say now that the 2001 rule is in effect, Colorado’s proposal is simply weaker.
“It makes Colorado a second-tier state to the rest of the nation,” says Sloan Shoemaker, executive director of western Colorado’s Wilderness Workshop.
A federal roadless advisory committee found similar problems.
“The outcome we’d like to see is protected roadless areas,” Shoemaker says. “Right now, the best way to do that is the 2001 rule.”
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Comments
At the philosophical heart of some of the legal battles is the age old states rights v. federal gov't debate.
Keep your eye on any last minute Bush proclamations regarding this matter, much as the Clinton Roadless Rule policy was enacted on his way out of the door.
One of the biggest problems in this debate has been that relatively few people know much about the lands covered by the roadless rule. I have traveled to roadless areas around the country including many in the northern Rockies doing research for a book. On my trips into roadless areas I have encountered many people using these beautiful areas. Almost without exception, the people I encountered rarely knew that the lands were part of the roadless rule. Most people thought that the lands they were hiking on already had some other form of protection.
Unfortunately, the government maps of roadless areas, such as those linked to in this site, lack detail and are difficult to use. In order to help people understand and explore these wonderful lands, we created Roadlessland.org - a site that maps all the roadless areas and includes photos and comments.
If you would like to help protect these areas, explore them and get to know them. The roadless areas listed in this article are easy to find, as are thousands of other roadless areas around the country.
Roadlessland.org