Roadless rule is reinstated, will affect 1.6 million acres in New Mexico
Last Friday, a federal appeals court in Denver upheld the government’s authority to restrict road development on tens of millions of acres of public lands. This decision will reinstate 1.6 million acres of wild lands as roadless in New Mexico, most of which lies within the Gila Wilderness.
More than 10 years ago, the U.S. Forest Service under the Clinton administration proposed the “Roadless Area Conservation Rule.” The Roadless Rule was developed following years of scientific evidence, hundreds of public meetings across the country and 1.6 million public comments. To date, the Forest Service has received more than four million comments on the rule with 95 percent in favor. With more than one-half of America’s national forests already open to logging, mining and drilling, the rule was intended to preserve the last third of undeveloped forests as a home for wildlife, a haven for recreation and a heritage for future generations.
The rule was opposed by some western states, and the State of Wyoming brought a lawsuit against the federal government, claiming that preventing road construction into or in national forests is de facto wilderness designation and is only something that Congress can do. The state claimed the Forest Service had overstepped its bounds.
Last week’s unanimous decision rejects Wyoming’s claim: “The Forest Service did not usurp Congressional authority because the roadless rule did not establish de facto wilderness,” the court said in a decision written by Judge Jerome A. Holmes.
Read more in the New York Times
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