New Report: "Wild at Heart" Details Rollbacks for Idaho Backcountry
Contact: Paul Spitler, CBD 541.306.4772
Boise, ID—The Center for Biological Diversity, Northwoods Wilderness Recovery, and more than 50 other local and national conservation groups released Wild At Heart, a report today condemning the Bush administration’s plan to open the door to development of Idaho’s roadless backcountry forests. This public land is currently protected under the Roadless Area Conservation Rule.
Idaho's 9.3 million acres of roadless backcountry make up the core of the last and largest intact forest ecosystem in the lower 48 states. The proposed Bush rule will impact almost two-thirds of Idaho’s remaining roadless expanse – over 6 million acres!
Wild At Heart highlights key differences between Bush’s proposed Idaho rule and current management under the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule. The proposed Idaho rule is part of the administrations new plan to undo roadless area protections state-by-state.
The Roadless Area Conservation rule is a result of the most extensive and popular federal rulemaking process in history. The rule establishes reasonable and nationally-consistent management policies for managing national forest roadless areas.
Compared to current roadless management, changes under the Bush administration’s proposed Idaho rule include:
• 8 times more logging
• 4-fold increase in road building
• 545 million tons of phosphate mining
• opening 609,500 acres to mining, geothermal, and oil and gas exploration
The U.S. Forest Service’s own Draft Environmental Impact Statement predicts Bush’s proposed Idaho rule will:
• diminish hunting and fishing
• spread noxious weeds across 609,500 acres
• adversely impact species, including 611 sensitive plant populations
• compromise the wilderness character of pristine forests
• degrade roadless characteristics, ecosystem integrity, & scenic beauty across 6 million acres
Because Idaho is the first state petition under Bush’s new flawed rule, it could set precedent for managing roadless areas in other states. The administration has already proposed similar rollbacks in Alaska and Colorado.
“The ecological, economic and social impacts of changing current management policies would be profound,” said Paul Spitler of the Center for Biological Diversity, “which is why the Roadless Area Conservation Rule should remain intact.”
The Forest Service will be soliciting comments on the new Idaho rule until April 7, 2008.