Roadless rulemaking ends tomorrow

Posted by egable on October 22nd, 2008 filed in Forests

The 60-day public review period for the federal rulemaking for Colorado’s roadless forests ends tomorrow, and sportsmen, environmentalists and outfitters are ramping up their efforts to oppose the rule.

More than 170,000 comments have been submitted in opposition to the rule, which opponents say would leave 4.4 million acres of Colorado’s roadless backcountry less protected than they’d been under the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule.

Tomorrow, a crew of kayakers, sportsmen, business leaders and environmentalists will deliver a “boat-load” of comments opposing the proposed plan, which they say would open up some of Colorado’s best backcountry to significant increases in logging and road-building, as well as new oil and gas drilling that was formerly off limits. The event will take place on the West steps of the Colorado State Capitol at 1:30 p.m.

The Roadless Area Conservation National Advisory Committee will meet to continue review of the Colorado rule on Nov. 18 and 19, past the deadline set by the White House for completed federal rulemakings. A meeting notice is expected to be published in the Federal Register within the next 10 days.

On Monday, the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership released a report detailing the value of roadless areas to sportsmen and critiquing the proposed Colorado rule. The report says that hunting and fishing-related activities annually generate more than $1 billion — and wildlife watching adds another nearly $1.4 billion — to the Colorado economy.

Also on Monday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit heard the Bush administration’s appeal of the court’s decision to uphold the 2001 roadless rule. No date is set for court action on the appeal.