On August 5th, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed protection for almost 50 million acres of wild national forests and grasslands from new road building, logging, and development. The decision puts an end to the Bush administration's efforts to open these last great natural areas to development. Wednesday's ruling protects the majority of national forest roadless areas in the country.
"Americans love the wild forests and rivers our country has been blessed with," said Earthjustice attorney Kristen Boyles. "From campers, hunters, hikers, fishermen and bird watchers to cities and towns that rely on clean, mountain-fed drinking water, we all stand and cheer that the Court today protected our national roadless areas."
The appellate court explained that the Bush rule it struck down "had the effect of permanently repealing uniform, nationwide, substantive protections that were afforded to inventoried roadless areas, and replacing them with a [variable] regime of the type the agency had rejected as inadequate a few years earlier." The Court repeated its earlier finding that "there can be no doubt that the 58.5 million acres subject to the Roadless Rule, if implemented, would have greater protection if the Roadless Rule stands." The 2001 Rule has, the Court emphasized, "immeasurable benefits from a conservationist standpoint."
Today's ruling not only affirms and reinstates the most popular environmental rule of all time, it frees the Obama administration to pursue President Obama's pledge to "support and defend" the 2001 Rule
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