The latest incarnation of a plan to protect the remaining relatively “roadless” national forest land in Colorado makes compromises for coal-mining, ski areas and tree-cutting but introduces a new tiered-system for top-priority land that could receive stricter protection.
The U.S. Forest Service this morning released a draft of the plan, which limits roads for tree-cutting in dead and dying beetle-ravaged forests near communities to an area within 1/2-mile of town. Roads would be allowed around existing ski areas.
The plan is designed to save 879 coal-mining jobs with labor income estimated at $63.9 million.
Local and national environmental groups swiftly rejected it, saying the plan would significantly weaken current protections.
“The plan offers no solution to imminent development of existing oil and gas leases within Colorado roadless areas. And it would allow new coal mining, utility corridors, and other development activity inside the forest backcountry,” a joint statement from nine Colorado-based groups said.
“While we maintain that a Colorado-specific rule is not needed because there is already a carefully crafted, strongly supported national rule in place, any rule that is finalized should provide at least the level of protection found in the (current) national roadless rule. Colorado’s roadless forests are a state treasure and a national asset-they merit greater protection than what is currently provided in the Obama proposal and they deserve the same level of protection as those in other states.”
U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsak, whose agency oversees the forest service, must decide on a plan for managing the 4.18 million to 4.4 million acres of relatively roadless national forest land in Colorado.
Colorado Department of Natural Resources officials participated heavily in developing the latest revision.
“We’re committed to the protection of roadless areas on our national forests, areas vital for conservation of water resources, wildlife and for outdoor recreation,” Vilsack said in a prepared statement. “These areas also provide an important driver of economic opportunity and jobs in rural Colorado communities.”
Federal and state officials have been working on the current plan since 2005. They’ve been negotiating the broader issue of protecting roadless areas since 2001, when the President Clinton established the rule that currently governs relatively pristine national forests countrywide.
Leaders back then were concerned that commercial, residential and industrial development was degrading forests bit by bit.
Today’s compromise for coal companies on Colorado’s Western Slope is designed to allow temporary roads for drilling and maintaining methane gas vents needed for expansion of underground mining.
The plan increases the amount of land receiving strictest protection to 562,000 acres out of the 4.18 million roadless acres statewide — still less than a third of the 14.5 million acres of national forest land in Colorado.
“We think it is significantly improved and we commend the forward direction, but we still see some need for refinement,” said Joel Webster, director of public lands programs for the Montana-based Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership. “We believe a third, about 1.4 million acres, should be included in the upper tier to provide certainty that that they will be conserved for future generations.”
A 90-day period for public review of the 78-page plan, along with a draft statement of potential environmental impacts (with 30-page summary) has begun.
A year ago, Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter submitted a newly sweetened plan to the Obama administration for approval. Vilsack at the time praised it for providing strong protection, but added that the Forest Service would look into increasing the number of acres receiving a higher level of protection.
Federal courts still are divided on applicability of the Clinton-era rule and whether officials established it legally.
A ruling expected from the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver will resolve the Obama administration’s and environmental groups’ challenge of a 2008 Wyoming federal judge’s injunction blocking roadless protection nationwide. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled in favor of national roadless protection, rejecting a Bush administration bid to open some forests to development.
Environment law experts were scrutinizing the new documents.
“It’s disappointing that this rule is not going to be as protective as the national rule,” said Ted Zukoski, a Denver-based staff attorney for Earthjustice, which has defended roadless forest protection in courts around the West for a decade.
The plan “appears to permit oil and gas drilling in some places. It’s going to allow bull-dozing for roads and well pads for coal mines on tens and thousands of acres.”
Bruce Finley: 303-954-1700 or bfinley@denverpost.com
