By Scott Brady
The U.S. Forest Service plans to close 58.5 million acres of national forest land in accordance with the Roadless Area Conservation Policy submitted by the Clinton administration before he left office.
The rule would close four million acres in Utah”s forests to logging, new road construction, fire prevention and any activity requiring road access.
Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff said Utah is hurt by the roadless rule more than any other state and will not accept the roadless regulations.
“Our freedom and identity is directly tied to access to our land,” he said. “We need it for income, recreation and peace of mind.”
After Idaho, Colorado, Montana and Wyoming filed lawsuits challenging the roadless rule, Utah, Alaska and several counties in North Dakota also filed suits against the rule.
“The public never really had a chance to say this is a good idea or this is a bad idea,” said Paul Murphy, spokesperson for the attorney general”s office in Utah.
“Right now you have this blanket rule that applies to millions of acres, and if there”s a fire or an insect infestation, you”re not going to have roads to go in and take care of the problem,” Murphy said.
Elaine Suriano, environmental scientist for the Environmental Protection Agency, said the current administration has basically allowed the rule to go forward, but they have designated some review and potential revision so there would be more local decision making.
“It remains to be seen how that will eventually come out,” she said. “If you do something at the national level it”s going to cost less, but it may have less local specificity.”
Suriano said if you look at the rule it does give you enough flexibility for local decision makers to revisit what was designated, and change the designation.
According to the U.S. Forest Service, the roadless area rule is a sensible response to last summer”s record fire season.
It also allows for active management, when the agency demonstrates a need, to restore ecological processes or provide habitat for endangered species.
According to the Utah attorney general”s office, the rule will affect property in Beaver, Carbon, Garfield, Sanpete, San Juan, Sevier, Summit, Uintah, Wayne and Wasatch counties.
The public will have a chance to comment on the plan.
Seven open houses on the proposal will be held in Utah and one in Wyoming. The first informational meetings will begin on June 19 from 5-8 p.m. at Skyline High School in Salt Lake City.
The meetings will end July 10 at the Tooele County Courthouse. A second set of meetings held in August is to take public comments, which must be submitted by September 18.
