Trout Unlimited -- News Release

Roadless Area Conservation Rule

The House of Representatives is now considering a still unnumbered bill to make the Roadless Area Conservation Rule a law. The roadless rule, if enacted into law, would protect approximately 58.5 million acres of unfragmented National Forests from new road construction and most commercial timber harvest. Trout Unlimited fully supports the National Forest Roadless Area Conservation Act and will work to ensure its passage. But your help is as vital for success now as ever before.

After it was finalized in 2001, the roadless rule was subject to lawsuits, against which the Bush Administration failed to defend it. The rule was subsequently enjoined by a federal court in Idaho. Since then, the Forest Service has issued a series of directives that significantly diminish or altogether eliminate roadless area protection. The roadless bill under consideration by the House of Representatives would implement the rule as it was written in 2001. As a law, instead of an administrative rule, it would be on equal footing with NEPA and other laws that protect our public lands and waters. It would also be free from procedural challenges that have caused the current legal battle over the roadless rule.

Although they only comprise 2 percent of America’s land base, the importance of roadless areas to coldwater fisheries cannot be overstated. For example,

· In the 7 state Interior Columbia River Basin, 60% of the best remaining trout and salmon habitat is within roadless or low road density areas.

· 85% of the healthiest populations of all western cutthroat trout species occur in wilderness and roadless areas.

· Roadless areas provide habitat for more than 65% of all Forest Service sensitive species. Of the species currently listed for protection under the Endangered Species Act, approximately 25% of fish and wildlife are likely to have habitat within roadless areas. In other words, a quarter of our most at risk species are dependent upon 2 percent of the nation’s land base for their survival.
The House bill builds on the most extensive public outreach and comment ever associated with a federal rulemaking process. The roadless rule was shaped by a record-breaking 2.5 million public comments and informed by more than 600 local public meetings including at least two on every National Forest in the country. An incredible 95% of public comments favored increased protection of roadless areas.

If passed, the House bill would prohibit new road construction into roadless areas except in emergency situations such as fighting fires. Most forms of commercial timber harvest would also be prohibited except when such harvests enhanced the ecological values of roadless areas. No existing access or rights of access to National Forests would be blocked, and no roads would be closed.

The maintenance backlog on the existing 386,000-mile forest road system presently exceeds $8.4 billion. There is not a private landowner in the nation that would continue to build new roads in the face of such an astonishing backlog and liability.

Please contact your Member of Congress by visiting the link below to support making the roadless rule into law. Show the Administration that 2.5 million comments were not a hoax.

http://capwiz.com/tu/issues/alert/?alertid=154437&type=CO