Monte Vista
Colorado’s Roadless Areas Review Task Force was handed one of the most difficult and far-reaching tasks any public land manager could imagine, and the unpaid task force members rightly deserve commendation for their hard work developing draft protections.
As former forest supervisor for the San Juan/Rio Grande National Forests with three decades of experience, I know how hard it is to balance all the demands placed on our national forests to sustain them for future generations.
Colorado’s roadless forests are especially important for our Western heritage. These lands provide some of the last non-fragmented landscapes. Roadless forests are key to ensuring quality habitat for big game species such as elk, mule deer and black bear as well as threatened and endangered species such as the greenback cutthroat trout and the Canada lynx.
Protecting roadless areas has clear benefit to our state’s economy maintaining our robust and growing outdoor recreation industry. In 2004, nearly $3.7 billion was spent in Colorado by hunters, anglers and wildlife viewers. Roads can cause erosion and sedimentation, degrading water quality and damaging aquatic habitat.
Preserving these values in Colorado’s roadless forests is essential to our state’s future, and the task force’s recommendations are an important step toward that goal.
Perhaps the most important task force recommendation is the prohibition against new road construction during the development of new oil and gas leases.
Energy development is happening at an unprecedented and extraordinary rate, far more rapidly than anytime in the entire history of the West. The vast majority of reserves are open for drilling and don’t lie in Colorado’s roadless forests. Oil and gas drillers have a large backlog of undeveloped leases available for exploration.
The task force’s draft recommendations encourage good management decisions by defining a temporary road and encouraging road-building exemptions only occur after other, less intrusive alternatives are explored first.
The oil and gas policy strikes a good balance between allowing us to extract these resources and helping to protect wildlife habitat and watersheds. However, other proposed recommendations don’t achieve this balance.
Unfortunately, the draft coal mining provisions are overly broad. They remove tens of thousands of acres from all roadless protections.
There is a reasonable middle ground. Underground coal mining activities can be accommodated while still providing strong protections for wildlife habitat.
It is completely appropriate to allow temporary roads to ensure the safety of mine workers. But we can do this while still offering broad roadless protections to the rich and vibrant wildlife herds and scenery.
The task force also tackled the tough issue of fire mitigation and forest health.
I’m an adviser on forest health and wildfire hazard mitigation to protect communities. Being on the front line of fire management, I know firsthand that it’s important to be able to build roads and thin forests in areas adjacent to communities. The draft recommendations certainly allow that.
But veteran land managers know the emphasis needs to be in the “red zones” near communities, not old stands of timber in our backcountry. The task force should consider closing any potential loopholes that may take money and attention away from the red zones near communities.
Also, we must be aware that the final Colorado roadless rule will not be adopted for at least two years. This means that projects can move forward that would harm roadless forests.
A key U.S. Department of Agriculture official said in a letter to The New York Times last year that roadless areas would be protected during this interim period pending the development of state-specific rules.
Given that we have so much to lose, Colorado would be wise to follow the lead of California’s Republican governor and ask that the federal government hold true to its promise of interim protection.
The task force will play an important role by encouraging Gov. Bill Owens to request interim protection when he submits the Colorado petition. Despite the pledge to provide interim protection, federal agencies are already leasing roadless areas for oil and gas drilling.
Without interim protection, some of the work of the task force and the comments by thousands of Coloradans could be for naught. And the forests that provide a healthy recreation-based economy, define our Western heritage and traditions and sustain our very way of life will be needlessly sacrificed.
Jim Webb is a former forest supervisor for the San Juan/Rio Grande National Forests.
