Earth Equity News

Truce Is Reached in Battle Over Idaho Forest Land. By Felicity Barringer, NYTimes, August 31, 2008. “Legal and political battles over the future of national forest land have raged since 2001, with the Clinton administration’s ‘roadless rule’ protecting millions of acres from loggers, miners and development, and the Bush administration pushing for less-restrictive rules. On Friday, Idaho, one of the most forested states in the country -- and one of the most conservative -- announced an unlikely truce. With the support of hunters, fishermen and some environmental groups, the state and the Bush administration agreed on regulatory safeguards for 9.3 million acres that had been designated as roadless areas by the Clinton administration -- and thus free of commercial activity. The compromise would leave about 3.3 million acres of the total roadless. About 5.6 million acres would enjoy similar protections, though exceptions could be made for logging in areas where fires could put communities at risk. An additional 400,000 acres would be open to all development... Rick Johnson, the executive director of the Idaho Conservation League, which backed the new plan, said in an interview: ‘If you look at the substance, it’s frankly not hugely different from the Clinton rule of 2001. What is different is the messenger In 2001 we had a Democratic president telling Idaho that 9.3 million acres of their landscape was going to be managed a specific way.’ The new plan was a local product, and that, he said, made it acceptable.”