The Bush administration yesterday issued a new rule that has the potential to open up 58 million acres of remote and pristine national forestland to road development, oil and gas exploration and timbering.

The action, which ended a 4-year-old ban imposed at the very end of the Clinton administration, was immediately pilloried by environmental groups saying it puts many of the nation's last, best places at risk.

The new rule gives state governors 18 months to identify areas that should remain roadless and petition the secretary of agriculture to develop management regulations for those "unroaded" national forest areas in their states. The agriculture secretary is free to ignore or amend a governor's petition and implement a management plan that may or may not allow development of the area.

Many officials made it clear much of the land will remain untouched.

"We have no plans to build roads in the roadless areas of the national forests in California. ... Areas are roadless here for a reason," Matt Mathes, a regional spokesman for the Forest Service in the state told The Associated Press.

Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns said the department was "committed to working closely with the nation's governors to meet the needs of our local communities while protecting and restoring the health and natural beauty of our national forests."

The nation's 155 forests cover 192 million acres. Of that acreage, 50 percent has been logged at one time or another and 18 percent is protected as wilderness. Other, inventoried roadless areas -- the 58 million acres subject to the new rule -- exist in 38 states, but 56.6 million acres or 97 percent of those areas are in just 12 Western states: Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah Washington and Wyoming.

The Forest Service estimates that as much as 34.3 million acres could be opened to road construction and resource development if governors submit no protection petitions or if the petitions are rejected. The other 24.2 million acres are protected under existing forest management plans but those plans could be amended to allow development.

The nation's forests currently contain 386,000 miles of roads -- enough to circle the Earth 15 times. The Forest Service has a $10 billion maintenance backlog on those roads.

Pennsylvania's only national forest is the Allegheny, which sprawls over 513,000 acres in Elk, Forest, McKean and Warren counties, but contains only 23,150 acres that would qualify for roadless designation, according to an inventory done last year. An additional 9,031 acres are designated wilderness.

Agriculture under-Secretary Mark Rey, a former timber industry lobbyist, said the Clinton roadless rule had spawned nine federal lawsuits and widespread controversy.

Rey sought to minimize the impact of the new rule during a telephone news conference yesterday.

"I predict that many of the state rules that will be issued will protect many of the areas protected by the 2001 rule," Rey said. "There will be predictions of doom, but the reality on the ground will be the same tomorrow."

He said the new rule will eliminate 2 million acres protected by the Clinton rule because they contain roads, facilitate road building for firefighter access, and foster better collaboration with states and local communities. It also establishes a 12-member advisory committee to advise the agriculture secretary on whether to accept or reject governors' petitions for roadless protection.

Seeking to calm a predicted outcry over the new rule, Rey said the administration has not allowed increased logging or development in the acreage protected by the 2001 rule.

"But we said in 2001 that we want to find a better way," Rey said, "and we think we have."

Republican congressmen applauded the administration's "collaborative" approach to roadless area management, but the administration's assurances that little will change failed to mute the high-decibel opposition to the new rule from environmental groups, lawmakers, governors and even the Outdoor Industry Association, a national trade group.

"We are greatly disappointed that the administration has chosen a plan that could create dozens of individual rules rather than providing strong national guidance on protecting roadless forests," said Frank Hugelmeyer, the association's president.

The association, representing 4,000 manufacturers, service providers and retailers in the $20 billion outdoor industry, campaigned for continuing the roadless rule and generated more than 10,000 public comments opposed to the new rule.

Gov. Ed Rendell, who has urged the administration not to weaken the Clinton-era roadless rule protections will take whatever actions he can to continue those protections in the Allegheny National Forest, said Kate Philips, the governor's spokeswoman.

"This is disappointing because the roadless rule did serve to protect so many of the treasured areas around the nation," Philips said. "Unless individual governors step up to the plate and petition for protection those areas could be lost. This cripples the intent of the original rule."

That rule issued in the waning days of the Clinton administration was based on years of scientific study, 600 local public hearings and meetings and 2.5 million favorable public comments, including 112,000 from Pennsylvanians.

At the time the U.S. Forest Service said the rule was adopted due to strong public sentiment for protecting wild areas, clean water sources, biological diversity, recreational opportunities, wildlife habitat and forest health.

"Weakening protections for America's national forests is not wise and is certainly not conservative," said Sandy Moser, president of the Pennsylvania chapter of Republicans for Environmental Protection. "Roadless areas in the Allegheny National Forest provide critical wildlife habitat and are an important source of clean drinking water in the state. The Forest Service's changes to the roadless rule seem incredibly short-sighted."