Federal judge in Wyo. overturns `roadless rule'

[DogPoundPup]

A federal judge has overturned a Clinton-era ban on road construction in nearly a third of national forests, the latest turn in a long-running dispute over U.S. Forest Service rules for undeveloped land.

U.S. District Judge Clarence Brimmer issued a permanent injunction Tuesday against the so-called "roadless rule," saying it violated the National Environmental Policy Act and the Wilderness Act.

"The Forest Service, in an attempt to bolster an outgoing President's environmental legacy, rammed through an environmental agenda that itself violates the country's well-established environmental laws," Brimmer wrote.

The judge issued a similar decision in 2003 in response to a lawsuit filed by Wyoming challenging the roadless rule.

The 2001 rule prohibits logging, mining and other development on 58.5 million acres in 38 states and Puerto Rico, but the Bush administration replaced it in May 2005 with a process that required governors to petition the federal government to protect national forests in their states.

Conservation groups and attorneys general from Oregon, Washington, California and New Mexico later challenged the Bush policy.

In 2006, U.S. District Judge Elizabeth Laporte in San Francisco reinstated the 2001 rule created by the Clinton administration. That led Wyoming to renew its complaint in federal court.

On Tuesday, environmentalists vowed to appeal Brimmer's ruling to the U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver while downplaying its scope.

Mike Anderson, an attorney with The Wilderness Society, said he believed the California decision was still in effect.

"It is not in any way overturned or compromised by Judge Brimmer's decision in Wyoming today," Anderson said. "What it does do is create two conflicting court decisions in different federal courts, different states, both issuing decisions with nationwide impact."

Wyoming Attorney General Bruce Salzburg praised Brimmer's ruling, saying the injunction was appropriate "in light of the potential harm the roadless rule poses to our national forests due to beetle infestation and forest fires."

"We anticipate an appeal by either the United States or one or more of the interveners," Salzburg said.

Attempts to reach the Forest Service for comment Tuesday evening were unsuccessful.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2008/08/12/national/a195417D40.DTL&type=politics

[Bobbieo]

1. Bush still has five more months to destroy this nation's wilderness!!