Obama Reinstates Clinton Rule Baring Remote Forest Roads. By Matthew Daly, AP, May 28, 2009. "The Obama administration is ordering a one-year moratorium on road-building and other development on about 50 million acres of remote national forests. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack issued a directive Thursday reinstating for one year most of a Clinton-era ban against new road construction and development in national forests. The 2001 rule banned road building and logging in more than 58 million acres of remote national forests, mostly in the West. Conflicting court decisions issued since then have left the so-called roadless rule's legal status in doubt. Environmental groups consider the road ban crucial, since road-building is often the first step toward logging, drilling, mining and other development in the forest backcountry. Critics of the ban say roads are needed to fight wildfires and log small trees that otherwise could serve as fuel for catastrophic fires."
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