Tag Archives: roadless

Sparing an acre here and there in the latticework of oil development

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Bismark Tribune; 10/14/2012
Excerpt:      “The state of North Dakota has now joined four western North Dakota counties in legal action to try to force the U.S. Forest Service into letting them build section line roads in a few scattered parcels of federal public land in the Badlands that are still suitable for wilderness designation. In the 1970s, fully 500,000 acres of the Little Missouri National Grasslands were designated as “suitable for wilderness.” Today fewer than 70,000 acres of the badlands remain roadless and suitable for wilderness.   …..”

Read entire article at http://bismarcktribune.com/news/columnists/clay-jenkinson/sparing-an-acre-here-and-there-in-the-latticework-of/article_d751f96a-130d-11e2-981a-0019bb2963f4.html

Legal battle over building roads on protected grasslands heats up

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Fargo Inforum  10/7/2012
Excerpt:   “FARGO – A legal battle is intensifying to decide if roads can be built in areas of the Little Missouri National Grasslands now managed as roadless and eligible to be protected as wilderness.

The dispute started this summer when four North Dakota counties sued the federal government, asserting they have the legal right to build roads along section lines.  …”

Read entire article at http://www.inforum.com/event/article/id/376638/group/News/

State Awaits Outcome of Remaining Roadless Forest Lawsuits

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Alaska Public Radio 10/4/2012
Excerpt:   “The state of Alaska has the only remaining legal challenge pending against a nationwide ban on logging and road building on roadless forest lands. That’s after the U.S. Supreme Court decided this week not to hear an appeal on a lawsuit brought by the state of Wyoming and a mining industry group from Colorado.  …..”

Read entire article at http://www.alaskapublic.org/2012/10/04/state-awaits-outcome-of-remaining-roadless-forest-lawsuits/

High court rejects challenge to roadless rule

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Laramie Boomerang; 10/2/2012
Excerpt:  ” Environmental groups hailed the U.S. Supreme Court’s rejection of an appeal challenging a federal rule that bars development on 50 million acres of roadless areas in national forests, ending one of the main legal battles that had left the rule in doubt for more than a decade.

“The Supreme Court action validates arguably one of most important public land conservation polices in a generation,” said Jane Danowitz, a director of the Pew Environment Group, which has worked on the rulemaking since 1998.  ……”

Read entire article at http://www.laramieboomerang.com/articles/2012/10/02/ap-state-wy/wy_supreme_court_roadless_forests.txt

U.S. Supreme Court rejects national forest roadless rule challenge

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Summit County Voice; 10/1/2012
Excerpt:   “SUMMIT COUNTY — A last-ditch effort by miners, ranchers and other extractive users to overturn the U.S. Forest Service’s national roadless rule has failed, as the U.S. Supreme Court reject a plea to hear the case.

The formal petition came from the state of Wyoming, which last year lost its challenge in the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Wyoming was joined in the petition by eight other states, numerous mining and ranching groups, along with several motorized recreation groups.   …”

Read entire article at http://summitcountyvoice.com/2012/10/01/u-s-supreme-court-rejects-national-forest-roadless-rule-challenge/

High court rejects challenge to roadless rule

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Associated Press 10/1/2012
Excerpt:  “

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court has turned away an appeal challenging a federal rule that bars development on 50 million acres of roadless areas in national forests.

The justices said Monday they will leave in place a federal appeals court decision that upheld the so-called roadless rule that took effect late in the presidency of Bill Clinton.  The state of Wyoming and the Colorado Mining Association said closing so much forest land to development has had serious consequences for residents of Western states and the logging, mining and drilling industries.  ….”

Read entire article at http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2012/oct/01/high-court-rejects-challenge-to-roadless-rule/

Colorado: Forest Service challenged anew over approval of a coal mine expansion in roadless area

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Summit County Voice ;  9/26/2012
Excerpt:   “FRISCO — A long-running battle over a coal mine expansion in a national forest roadless area continues, as conservation groups this week challenged U.S. Forest Service approval of a coal mine expansion 10 miles west of Paonia.

According to Earthjustice, the mine project could ultimately result in construction more than six miles of roads, along with 48 natural gas drilling pads within the Sunset roadless area, one of the areas exempted from a road-building ban under a newly adopted roadless rule for national forest lands in Colorado.  …”

Read entire article at http://summitcountyvoice.com/2012/09/26/colorado-forest-service-challenged-anew-over-approval-of-a-coal-mine-expansion-in-roadless-area/

Legal challenge stops work on Burnt Mtn. at Snowmass

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Aspen Times 9/13/2012
Excerpt:   “SNOWMASS — Aspen Skiing Co.’s plan to add skiing on 230 acres of Burnt Mountain at Snowmass ski area this winter is being challenged by an environmental organization.

The Ark Initiative filed a lawsuit Sept. 5 contending that the U.S. Forest Service had unlawfully granted Skico permission to cut trees in what it maintains is an inventoried roadless area with special protections. The Ark Initiative informed the Forest Service that it intended to seek a temporary restraining order blocking Skico’s tree cutting on Burnt Mountain.   …”

Read entire article at http://www.aspentimes.com/article/20120913/NEWS/120919941/1077&ParentProfile=1058

Colorado: Forest Service finalizes roadless rule

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Summit County Voice 7/3/2012
Excerpt: “SUMMIT COUNTY — The final version of a Forest Service roadless area management rule includes a few concessions to environmental groups, and goes a long way toward preserving natural resources on about 4.2 million acres of roadless lands in Colorado, but may still face challenges because it’s seen by some critics as weaker than the national version.

The rule will be published July 3 in the Federal Register. The final Colorado Roadless rule will be finalized a minimum of 30 days after the Final Environmental Impact Statement is published in the Federal Register.   …”

Read entire article at http://summitcountyvoice.com/2012/07/03/colorado-forest-service-finalizes-roadless-rule/#more-45060

Eight states, mining, ranching and motorized groups ask U.S. Supreme Court to hear latest roadless rule challenge

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Summit County Voice
Excerpt:   “SUMMIT COUNTY — Eight states, numerous mining and ranching groups, along with several motorized recreation groups have joined the Colorado Mining Association in appealing the U.S. Forest Service’s national roadless rule to the U.S. Supreme Court.

In its petition to the Supreme Court, the Colorado mining group repeats the oft-rejected claim that the roadless rule was adopted in violation of federal environmental laws, and that the rule is “a sweeping usurpation of the authority vested solely in Congress to designate lands as wilderness.”

Even though federal appeals courts have rejected those legal challenges, at least one natural resource law expert thinks the array of heavyweight opposition could sway the Supreme Court’s conservative justices to take on the case.  …”
Read entire article at http://summitcountyvoice.com/2012/06/22/eight-states-mining-ranching-and-motorized-groups-ask-u-s-supreme-court-to-hear-latest-roadless-rule-challenge/