Timely ban: Obama calls a halt to road-building in forests
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To preserve pristine areas, the Obama administration has called for a timeout on most road-building in national forests. The one-year moratorium will curb new road construction and development until there is a long-term roadless policy.
It is a welcome move to clarify a Clinton-era ban that prohibited road-building and logging in more than 58 million acres of backcountry. The rule has been challenged repeatedly by industry groups that had support during the Bush administration.
The result has been that portions of the Clinton rule have been upheld and overturned in conflicting court decisions that have left the rule's legal status in doubt and confounded officials in the U.S. Forest Service.
The most immediate effect of the moratorium will be to stop plans for road construction in Alaska's Tongass National Forest. About 35 miles of roads are proposed as part of several pending timber sales there. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack can still approve roads if necessary to protect public safety or forest health.
But the blanket ban, which takes effect immediately, is crucial, environmentalists say, because road construction is the first step to logging, drilling and mining that can chop away at pristine areas. A hold on such activity is environmentally sound policy.
First Published June 3, 2009 12:00 am
