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The Obama administration says it will defend a
2001 rule imposed by President Bill Clinton that blocked road
construction and other development on tens of millions of acres of
remote national forests.


      The administration's decision was contained in court papers
filed Thursday in a case in Wyoming that could help settle the fate
of remote federal forests. The administration is siding with
environmentalists in the case.


      Conflicting court opinions have variously upheld and blocked the
so-called Roadless Rule, which prohibited commercial logging,
mining and other development on about 58 million acres of national
forest in 38 states and Puerto Rico. 


A subsequent Bush
administration rule had cleared the way for more commercial
activity there.


  A spokesman for the Justice Department said the appeal notice,
filed in U.S. District Court in Wyoming, meets a Friday deadline to
preserve the government's right to pursue the appeal.

      The administration has not made a final decision on whether it
will appeal the case, he said.


The Superior National Forest in northern Minnesota is unlikely to see any impact over the Roadless Rule debate, according to a spokeswoman.


The Superior forest includes more than 61,000 acres considered roadless, and forest spokeswoman Chris Reichenbach says there are currently no plans to place roads on those acres. 


    
      A federal appeals court threw out the 2005 Bush roadless rule
last week, saying the rule "had the effect of permanently
repealing uniform, nationwide, substantive protections that were
afforded to inventoried roadless areas" in national forests.


      The California-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the
2001 rule offered greater protection to remote forests than the
2005 rule.

      The Aug. 5 ruling, one of dozens in recent years related to
roadless forests, was not the final word on the issue.

      The Wyoming case is pending in the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of
Appeals, where environmental groups are appealing a ruling by a
federal judge repealing the Clinton roadless rule. Arguments are
expected this fall before an appeals panel in Denver.

      Environmentalists called the Obama administration's decision to
defend the Clinton-era rule a major step toward resolving the
roadless issue in their favor.

      "We are grateful that the Obama administration is upholding and
honoring the commitment of the president to uphold and enforce the
2001 roadless rule," said Kristen Boyles, a lawyer for the
environmental group Earthjustice, which represents a coalition of
environmental groups in both appeals. 


Obama had said during the
presidential campaign that he supports roadless values.

      The latest filing "shows that the Obama administration is going
to stand behind the need for nationwide roadless protection,"
Boyles said.

(MPR's Bob Kelleher contributed to this report.)

Gallery

The "roadless rule" and state land: a special case

Untangling the roadless rule in Minnesota

Environmental News

Minnesota News

Greater Minnesota

The Obama administration says it will defend the 
2001 Roadless Rule that blocked road
construction and other development on millions of acres of remote national forests. The latest development means no new roads will be planned in Minnesota's Superior national forest.

Obama asks court to block forest road building

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