Posted on 07/11/2006 7:35:19 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
SACRAMENTO
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Wednesday plans to ask the federal government to prohibit roads on 4.4 million acres of national forest land in California, with limited exceptions for thinning trees to reduce fire danger.
The goal is to protect areas of the forests that currently are not accessible by roads, Resources Secretary Mike Chrisman said Tuesday.
Schwarzenegger is acting under a regulation adopted last year by the Bush administration. That regulation replaced a Clinton-era rule prohibiting road-building on nearly a third of national forest land.
Clinton passed the road-building ban eight days before he left office in January 2001. The Bush administration rule opened 58.5 million acres of the previously protected land to potential road building, unless governors petitioned the federal government to preserve the areas.
The agriculture secretary has the final say, however, leading environmentalists to fear that the process will open remote parts of national forests to logging, mining and grazing. Areas specifically designated as wilderness are still protected.
Four states New Mexico, North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia have filed petitions like the one California is expected to file Wednesday to protect their forests. An advisory committee set up under the U.S. Department of Agriculture has recommended approving three of those petitions and is considering New Mexico's.
That should allay fears that large tracts of national forest land will be opened to industry, Department of Agriculture Undersecretary Mark Rey said.
Governors in Minnesota, New Hampshire, Utah and Wyoming have opted against seeking specific roadless rules for their states, however. States face a Nov. 14 deadline to submit petitions before new roadless-area regulations take effect in 2007.
There were no plans to build roads in any of the designated areas in California, which comprise 21 percent of the state's national forest land, said Rey and U.S. Forest Service spokesman Matt Mathes.
"I guess what this will do is solidify it in rule-making," Rey said. He added that future governors "could ask us to go back and reconsider."
Roadless areas previously had been considered too remote or rugged for logging. They were inventoried under the Clinton administration as part of a survey of potential wilderness areas.
Environmentalists said the Bush administration's revising of the previous rules is intended to open national forests to industrial uses. The timber industry is increasingly interested in the areas as one of the few remaining sources of old-growth trees, which produce more valuable lumber.
Schwarzenegger supports the Bush administration's roadless regulation because it allows for states' participation and for tailoring regulations to individual states, Chrisman said.
"We want to make it California-specific," he said.
Maintaining areas without roads is important to protect wildlife, watersheds and recreational opportunities, he said.
Schwarzenegger's petition seeks limited exceptions for roads leading to mining claims and American Indian ceremonial sites, as well as to allow the cutting of brush and smaller fire-prone trees near mountain towns.
California Attorney General Bill Lockyer, meanwhile, is suing in federal court to overturn the Bush roadless regulation. He is joined by the governors of Washington and Oregon and attorneys general in New Mexico, Maine and Montana.
"There is no guarantee that the Bush administration is going to grant this petition," Lockyer spokeswoman Teresa Schilling said of the Schwarzenegger request. "They could just accept it or reject it without any reason. So we're going to continue to put the onus back on the Forest Service to protect the forest."
Environmental groups praised Schwarzenegger's decision, which he plans to formally announce at a news event in the Tahoe National Forest near Colfax, east of Sacramento.
"We're doing handsprings, we like it so much," said Sam Davidson, California field director for the conservation group Trout Unlimited.
Remote forest land in California is home to some of the state's rarest fish, Davidson said, including the Paiute cutthroat trout and the official state fish, the golden trout.
In a related move Tuesday, the Schwarzenegger administration filed appeals with the Forest Service to the management plans for four national forests in Southern California.
The plans would leave large areas of roadless land unprotected in the Angeles, Cleveland, Los Padres and San Bernardino national forests, the administration said in the appeals.
"leading environmentalists to fear that the process will open remote parts of national forests to logging, mining and grazing"
Leading the U.S. to ever more dependance of foreign resources, and more spectacular forrest fires!
Monday I drove through the Lassen area, that is managed for timber.
There are access roads all over, used by hunters and varied recreation vehicles.
Trees in that area are remarkably healthy, lush green foliage, and no sign of the browning that is so prevalent in my local Tahoe forrest, where the eco-nuts sue to stop every road or culling of diseased trees.
Over-preservation is doing far more long term damage than roads, timber, grazing, and mining interest could ever achieve.
Proclaimed?
Made the edict?
Imposed?
I am sure a little honest editing would have made the statement more accurate.
This is so stupid. I guess everyone has a short memory regarding the famous fires that wiped out thousands of acres.
The Toulomne fire of some years ago that burned from Yosemite to nearly Tolomne city or roughly several miles wide by 35 miles in length. The fire destroyed several old cabins in Foresta (the place where the woman environmentalist was beheaded by Cary Stayner).
Much of the land along the North Road to Yosemite (the old Big Oak Flat Road) is still over thick with trees and brush and is just another tinderbox waiting to happen, from the north side of Pilot ridge to Sawmill Mt.
And let's remember the Cherry Ridge Burn which is in the same general area, just around the Hetch Hetchy reservoir and system.
No roads, no prevention!
This is one small area but the example is true for the entire National forest in California, such as the massive Mt. Lassen fire as well.
Here is one article on why this is a stupid decision.
http://www.learnersonline.com/weekly/archive99/week35/
People are about to lose a great opportunity to take control over the federal forests.
If you read through the entire proposal, at one time called the Healthy Forest Initiative, and public statements made by the forest service, you will find that the administration is trying to give local citizens who live near the federal forests control of these forests.
Under the Initiative, local citizens could agitate for more logging, more recreation, more hunting and fishing and more access, including the building of roads.
Local citizens and their opinions would be incorporated into forestry management decisions. Local citizens would also have input into long-term forestry plans.
This was an opportunity for sportsmen and conservationists to move in with sufficient numbers and take back the federal forests from the New York-San Francisco eco-fascists and give back that control to local citizens who live in the area.
The key was for local citizens to persuade their governor to opt into the administration plan.
As for Trout Unlimited, what I would say about these socialist jackasses would get me banned on FR for two lifetimes. Maybe more.
Should also add that the administration made it known that mass mailings by the Sierra Club would carry no weight in making decisions about the forests under the Initiative, while individual opinions by local residents would carry great weight in forest decisions.
This was the key in taking back control of the forests.
Our Governor is NOT listening to us "local citizens!" He's only listening to his EnvironMental Advisor, Robert Kennedy, Jr. with the NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council) who advised him to slap another entire GovernMental EnvironMental body over the entire 25 MILLION acres of the Sierra-Nevada mountain range that makes up a full 1/5th of the State of CA!!!
The CA Farm Bureau that endorsed Arnold early, found out how foolish that was, because he wouldn't even consider not taking this extreme action, he simply ignored them and the weak-kneed Republican State Assemblyman who foolishly tried for an appeasement/compromise.
All this crappola has lead to an extreme insurgency of "moderate" Schwartzenegger Swooners to FR, trying to brow-beat those of us who try to defend the Republican Party platform and consistent conservatism into holding our noses yet another time in this endless series of nose-holdings Conservatives are expected to put up with in the CAGOP!!! (just thought you oughta know)
That's that "big tent", it's filled with nithing but elephant dung!
Only "gurlie men" need roads.
Real men swing through the trees!!!
Another remarkable comment from the Gubernator.
ROFL!
Schwarzenegger Acts to Guard State Wilderness
The governor will ask federal officials to ban new roads for mining and other development in 4.4 million acres of national forest.
By Robert Salladay, Times Staff Writer
July 12, 2006SACRAMENTO — Ending one of his remaining fights with environmentalists, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will ask the federal government today to protect 4.4 million acres of national forests from any new roads for timber, oil or gas exploration or other development.
If approved, the Schwarzenegger plan would allay environmentalists' fears that national forest land in California would be opened to development, endangering fish and wildlife. The governor's request was in response to a controversial Bush administration rule that opened millions of "roadless" areas nationwide.
"Having a Republican governor of a western state, with a large amount of roadless areas, stand up to protect all the areas sends an important signal to the rest of the country," said Sara Barth, California regional director of the Wilderness Society.
Schwarzenegger is scheduled to unveil his plan today at a Capitol news conference. He is effectively embracing a Clinton administration ban on new roads and timber harvesting on national forest land that includes the increasingly crowded Los Padres, Angeles, San Bernardino and Cleveland forests in Southern California.
President Bush canceled the ban in late 2004 and asked each governor to propose specific areas for protection covering 58.5 million acres. Schwarzenegger's petition is in response to that request.
(snip)
Along with Clinton, Al Gore, and Kofi Annan.
"Along with Clinton, Al Gore, and Kofi Annan."
And his wife the shrew who wears the pants in that family.
RINO dung!
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