Court dismisses challenge to Bush roadless rule

DENVER – After a four-year court battle that overturned a ban on road building in untouched national forests, environmental groups turned their sights Tuesday on new rules that could open those areas to logging and other development.

The Denver-based 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed an attempt by environmental groups to restore the Clinton administration’s ban, ruling Monday that their appeal became irrelevant when the Bush administration adopted a new rule in May.

The Clinton rule, which put 58.5 million acres of roadless national forests off-limits to logging and other development, had been upheld by the San Francisco-based 9th Circuit Court of Appeals on similar grounds.

The state of Wyoming challenged the ban in Wyoming federal court, which was not bound by the 9th Circuit decision. The Wyoming judge ruled that the Clinton administration had overstepped its authority in effectively creating wilderness areas on U.S. Forest Service lands.

The Wyoming Outdoor Council and seven other environmental groups appealed, and on May 5, the day after the 10th Circuit heard oral arguments, the Forest Service issued a new roadless rule to replace the one that had been overturned.

“Adoption of the new rule has rendered the appeal moot,” a three-judge appeals court panel said. “The portions of the roadless rule that were substantively challenged by Wyoming no longer exist.”

Attorney Jim Angell, of the Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund, said the decision does not end the fight but only “clears the decks” for battles over the new rule. Projects proposed in roadless areas likely would face individual legal challenges, Angell said.

The new rule gives states until late 2006 to ask the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which oversees the Forest Service, to either stop or allow road building. The rule covers some of the most pristine federal land in 38 states and Puerto Rico. Ninety-seven percent of it is in 12 states: Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Wyoming.

Idaho Gov. Dirk Kempthorne has said he would wait until next year to ask the Forest Service to open millions of acres of forest.

Washington Gov. Christine Gregoire said she was disappointed with the ruling.

“We will continue to focus on working within the Bush rule to protect most, if not all, of our national forest roadless areas.”