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Issues & Alerts

| Roadless Area Rule | Transportation Plan | Record of Decision |
| Roadless Rule Legal Actions |

Roadless Area & Transportation Policy Decisions (updated May 10, 2001)

Roadless Area Rule (Roadless Rule)

On January 5, President Clinton’s decision on National Forest Roadless Areas overrode local level land use decisions on nearly 60 million acres of national forests lands in the United States, 15 million in Alaska. The Forest Service, under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), based the Record of Decision on a flawed process and analysis. The final rule also takes away most local decision-making discretion by stating, "The prohibitions and restrictions established in this subpart are not subject to reconsideration, revision, or rescission in subsequent project decisions or land and resource management plan amendments or revisions undertaken pursuant to 36 CFR part 219.

Transportation Plan

Concurrently, the Forest Service issued new regulations on their transportation/roads management policy that creates a one-two punch for management and stewardship of the entire national forest system, not just the roadless areas. On January 4^th, the Forest Service released final revisions to the transportation regulations, a revision to the forest planning manual, and revisions to the Forest Service manual on road and trail management and planning. The combination of the changes will make it extremely difficult, if not impossible for local level forest managers to reconstruct or construct roads for resource management. This may have serious implications to the ability to accomplish long-term wildfire risk reduction on the 39 million acres of high risk for wildfire and 28 million acres of high risk for insects and disease.

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Final Roadless Record of Decision (ROD)

No Exemption for Tongass in Roadless Rule

The Clinton announcement finalized the Roadless Environmental Impact Statement which was released in November. Then Secretary of Agriculture Dan Glickman signed the Record of Decision (ROD) on January 12, 2001. The decision comes a month after a coalition of Southeast Alaska’s leaders met with Glickman and George Frampton, Chairman of the Council on Environmental Quality, urging that they exclude the Tongass from the road ban.

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Roadless Rule Legal Actions

Alaska

Governor Tony Knowles called the Roadless Decision "another federal fiat that constitutes a double-cross of the public process and the public’s trust." Gov. Tony Knowles directed his Attorney General to file suit against the Clinton Administration's midnight-hour executive action on roadless policy in the Tongass and Chugach National Forests.

The State of Alaska, on Jan. 31, filed suit against the roadless rules. State of Alaska v. US Department of Agriculture, Civil No. 01-039 (D. Alaska). Alaska Forestry Assn. has moved to intervene.

The members of the Alaska State Legislature passed a resolution (HJR 6) in support of the State of Alaska’s lawsuit seeking reversal of the Roadless Rule in Alaska.

Alaska’s Congressional Delegation (Senators Ted Stevens and Lisa Murkowski, and Congressman Don Young) believe the Roadless Decision was illegal and continue to work toward its reversal.

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