Tag Archives: roadless

Mountain bikers, environmentalists clash over Angeles National Forest plan

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San Gabriel Valley Tribune 3/27/2013
Excerpt:     “For the past seven years, the The U.S. Forest Service has been attempting to find a way to protect 37 roadless areas while keeping the public happy. More protection in the form of wilderness zoning would help the California condor, the California gnatcatcher, least bell’s vireo, the mountain yellow-legged frog and the Santa Ana sucker fish by limiting uses within these sensitive species’ habitat.

But in 2006, the state resources agency and environmental groups, including The Wilderness Society and the Sierra Club, sued saying the Forest Service was doing a poor job protecting these precious lands. Later, the two sides settled, agreeing to zone more roadless areas into “back county non-motorized” zones and as “recommended wilderness” areas.  ….”http://www.sgvtribune.com/news/ci_22886614/mountain-bikers-environmentalists-clash-over-angeles-national-forest
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Judge upholds roadless protections on U.S. forests

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LA Times 3/25/2013
Excerpt:        “SEATTLE — A court in Washington, D.C., has rejected the last legal challenge to prohibitions on logging and road building in backcountry roadless areas, ending more than 12 years of fighting over one of the nation’s signature wilderness protection policies.

The state of Alaska had challenged the rule adopted in 2001 by President Clinton to preserve the last large tracts of untouched forest in states including Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado and Alaska — along with about 1.7 million acres in California — that still have not been opened to logging and other development.   ….”
Read entire article at  http://www.latimes.com/news/nation/nationnow/la-na-nn-roadless-rule-20130325,0,785399.story

380,000 acres of wilderness to be declared off-limits to vehicles under proposed plan

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Village News 3/23/2013
Excerpt:      “RIVERSIDE – SAN DIEGO – About 380,000 acres of wilderness areas in four Southern California national forests would be declared off-limits to vehicles under plans that are up for public comment this month.

Large sections of the Santa Ana Mountains, between Irvine and Lake Elsinore, would be affected, as well as areas near Lytle Creek, near Cherry Valley and south of Palm Springs. The largest new proposed wilderness area is adjacent to the Sespe Creek wilderness areas north of Ojai.   The new wilderness areas are one if several options being considered by the U.S. Forest Service, which is under court order to follow Congressional directives to declare part of the local mountains wilderness.   ….”
Read entire article at http://www.thevillagenews.com/story/70160/

Group sues to stop Hebgen timber sale

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Bozeman Daily Chronicle 3/21/2013
Excerpt:         “An environmental group is suing for a second time to stop a timber sale in the Hebgen Basin.  On Wednesday, the Alliance for the Wild Rockies and the Native Ecosystems Council filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Missoula to stop the Forest Service from moving forward on its Lonesome Wood II Timber Sale.

The area covered by the timber sale is along the western and southern shores of Hebgen Lake. The Forest Service initiated the project, saying logging would safeguard area cabins from wildfires.   ….”
Read entire article at http://www.bozemandailychronicle.com/news/environment/article_72788d08-91d7-11e2-b139-001a4bcf887a.html

Rocky Barker: Good reasons why federal forests don’t pay like the state’s

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Idaho Statesman 3/4/2013
Excerpt:        “U.S. Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, presented numbers that appeared astounding as he made the case that state forestry is better.

Bishop, speaking at a hearing of the House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Public Lands and Environmental Regulation last week, said that the Idaho Department of Lands has 52 times the volume of timber harvested per acre on its 971,678 acres of forests than the U.S. Forest Service has on 20 million acres. That’s 239.4 million board feet per acre to 4.6.   …..”
Read entire article at http://www.idahostatesman.com/2013/03/04/2476011/good-reasons-why-federal-forests.html

Ninth Circuit Appeals Court upholds Idaho national forest roadless rule

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Idaho Statesman 1/7/2013
Excerpt:     “A three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled unanimously to uphold Idaho’s national forest roadless rule.

The panel, which included Idaho Senior Appeals Judge Stephen Trott, denied the appeal by the Wilderness Society, the Greater Yellowstone Coalition and other environmental groups of the decision in 2011 of U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill upholding the rule.   ….”

Read entire article athttp://voices.idahostatesman.com/2013/01/07/rockybarker/ninth_circuit_appeals_court_upholds_idaho_national_forest_roadle

Rocky Barker: Roadless panel decides by consensus

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Idaho Statesman  11/19/2012
Excerpt:         “A thinning project and a reforestation program to help disappearing whitebark pine got a thumbs-up.   But modifying the boundaries of a roadless area so a road could be built to construct a cellphone tower got a thumbs-down.

Those were among the recommendations the Idaho Roadless Commission made to U.S. Forest Service staff across Idaho last week.     ………”

Read entire article at  http://www.idahostatesman.com/2012/11/19/2352146/roadless-panel-decides-by-consensus.html

Obama direction on coal issues not so clear

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Charleston Gazette 11/10/2012
Excerpt:     “CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Last week, on the day after President Obama was re-elected, a U.S. Forest Service official in Colorado signed off on plans by Arch Coal to expand its West Elk Mine into a roadless area of national forest backcountry.

The decision rejected an appeal by local citizens and national environmental groups, who believe the project violates laws meant to protect air quality, forestlands and wildlife, including lynx, black bear and elk.    …..”

Read entire article at http://wvgazette.com/News/201211100073

Conservation groups challenge Idaho roadless rule in court

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Spokesman Review 11/9/2012
Excerpt:      “PUBLIC LANDS — A coalition of environmental groups made arguments before the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals at Portland, Ore., today in an ongoing effort to repeal the Idaho roadless rule and replace it with one adopted under President Bill Clinton.

The Wilderness Society, Greater Yellowstone Coalition, Sierra Club and the Natural Resources Defense Council contend the Idaho rule, crafted in a collaborative effort led by former Gov. Jim Risch, is weaker than the 2001 rule that is now in force on most national forests outside of Idaho, according to a report by Eric Barker of the Lewiston Tribune.   ….”

Read entire story at http://www.spokesman.com/blogs/outdoors/2012/nov/09/conservation-groups-challenge-idaho-roadless-rule-court/

Agency stands by coal mine expansion into roadless area

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Grand Junction Daily Sentinel; 11/8/2012
Excerpt:      “The U.S. Forest Service is standing by its approval of a coal mine expansion into a roadless area 10 miles east of Paonia.

The Forest Service’s regional office this week ruled against conservation groups who had appealed the agency’s decision to let Arch Coal build 6.5 miles of road and 48 drilling pads for methane vents in 1,700 acres of the Sunset Roadless Area.

The activities would accommodate the expansion of the West Elk Mine, owned by Arch Coal’s Mountain Coal Co. subsidiary.  …..”

Read entire article at http://www.gjsentinel.com/breaking/articles/agency-stands-by-coal-mine-expansion-into-roadless-area