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“ROADLESS” FOREST LANDS, MANAGED AS WILDERNESS......LEGAL?
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post Apr 3 2006, 07:19 AM
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Tonight we will discuss the "roadless" forest lands issue.
Read up below from what Jerry Hobbs forwarded from the Mountain States Legal Foundation's news release.
Bring your thoughts to the table tonight. Hope to see everyone at 7pm MST.
CP's Conference Hall

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QUOTE
MANAGING “ROADLESS” FOREST LANDS AS WILDERNESS IS ILLEGAL


http://www.mountainstateslegal.org/press_r...ssreleaseid=534

March 27, 2006 - For Immediate Release
Contact: William Perry Pendley

DENVER, CO. The U.S. Forest Service may not manage federal land as wilderness unless Congress has designated that land as wilderness, a Colorado task force was advised today by a public interest law firm with years of experience regarding federal land management and the nation’s public land laws. Mountain States Legal Foundation, which has made numerous appearances before the U.S. Supreme Court and federal courts of appeals, filed comments with the Colorado Roadless Areas Review Task Force. In 2004, Colorado enacted legislation creating the task force to advise Colorado’s governor how 4.4 million acres of inventoried “roadless” acres of Forest Service lands in Colorado should be managed.

“In 1964, Congress adopted the Wilderness Act, pursuant to which it designated areas of federal land as wilderness; this is the only manner in which such a classification may be attached to federal land,” said William Perry Pendley of Mountain States Legal Foundation. “In addition, Congress reasserted its constitutional authority over federal lands and put a clock on when, if ever, federal lands might be designated as wilderness. That clock has run, which requires that lands not designated by Congress as wilderness be managed as non-wilderness and open to all of the American people.”

In 1924, the Forest Service established the first de facto wilderness area; by 1964, it had created 88 de facto wilderness areas totaling 15 million acres. In 1964, Congress dealt legislatively with the issue of wilderness: creating wilderness areas, reserving for itself the designation of wilderness areas, and setting a deadline for the study of potential new wilderness areas.

In 1973, the Forest Service completed Roadless Area Review and Evaluation I (RARE I) to recommend land for further evaluation as potential wilderness areas. RARE I failed when courts ruled that the Forest Service had failed to comply with environmental study requirements. Later, the same fate befell RARE II when federal courts ruled the process violated the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). Nonetheless, in 2001, the Clinton Administration, relying on these flawed studies, issued the Roadless Area Conservation Rule by which nearly 60 million acres of Forest Service lands were closed to access.

The Clinton roadless rule was challenged in nine lawsuits across the country, including in Wyoming where the federal district court held that the rule was an attempt to circumvent the Wilderness Act of 1964. In 2005, the Forest Service published the State Petition Rule for Inventoried Roadless Area Management by which governors may recommend the management scheme for “roadless” areas of Forest Service lands within their States.

Mountain States Legal Foundation is a nonprofit, public interest law firm dedicated to individual liberty, the right to own and use property, limited and ethical government, and the free enterprise system. Its offices are in Denver, Colorado, metropolitan area.

Notice: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for research and educational purposes.


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