Parks, Open Spaces, Wild Places Reports
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Executive Summary
After decades of scientific inquiry, 600 public hearings, and a
record 1.6 million comments from the American public, the Clinton administration issued the Roadless
Area Conservation Rule in January 2001. The Roadless Rule, as it is commonly known,
originally protected 58.5 million acres of wild national forest land from most
commercial logging and road-building, and associated mining and drilling. Since
then, the Bush administration has removed these protections from 9.5 million
acres of roadless areas in the Tongass
National Forest.
For the remaining 49 million acres of America’s last wild national
forests, the 2001 Roadless Rule ensures that they will continue to provide
clean drinking water for millions of Americans, wildlife habitat, endless
recreational opportunities, and other important values. The rule also compels
the U.S. Forest Service to address the estimated $10.3 billion backlog in
needed maintenance for existing roads, instead of using taxpayer dollars to build
new roads.
The American people have spoken in favor of protecting roadless
areas within our national forests. Since 2000, Texas residents have submitted 64,658
comments, with the overwhelming majority of them in favor of protecting the
state’s 4,000 acres of roadless forests.
The strong public support for protecting roadless areas can be
understood by looking at their economic and ecological values:
- Sixty million Americans rely on drinking water from
national forests. Roadless areas, because of their pristine condition,
provide some of the purest sources of these essential water supplies. In
the Southern Forest Service Region, which includes Texas, drinking water is worth $295.8
million annually.
- Recreation in national forests has become more and more
popular over time as Americans participate in activities from bicycling and
hiking to fishing and hunting. In 2006, 5.4 million Texas residents took part in hunting,
fishing, and wildlife-watching; that same year, wildlife-related
recreation contributed $8.4 billion to the state economy.
- Some of the most unspoiled habitat for threatened,
endangered, and declining species is found in roadless areas. Texas’s national
forests are home to seven at-risk species that could be harmed by
destruction of roadless areas.
Despite the many benefits national forests provide,
historically, their value has been measured solely by the timber products they produce.
Through subsidies to the timber industry and road construction at taxpayers’ expense,
the Forest Service has sold timber from national forest land to timber
companies at such a low price that the agency loses millions of dollars each
year.
More recently, the Bush administration has fought to dismantle
the 2001 Roadless Rule and to open these pristine lands to development. This
threatens not only the ecological value of these lands but the revenue provided
by those who participate in recreational activities in our last wild national
forests. For hunters, hikers, and campers alike, the wild characteristics of
these untouched lands are what draw them to our national forests. The 2001
Roadless Rule ensures that communities that rely on income from recreation in
these last wild national forests will continue to have it for years to come.
After all, national forest roadless areas belong to all Americans and deserve
federal protection.
The Bush administration’s attack on the Roadless Rule is in
keeping with their other
numerous harmful policies, such as the so-called “Healthy
Forests” initiative, which increases logging and removes environmental safeguards
under the guise of preventing forest fires.
In the short term, the timber companies, mining companies, and
energy companies that support the Bush administration’s policies stand to benefit
from attacks on protections for roadless forests, making millions at taxpayers’
expense. However, it is the long term losses to the American public that we need
to consider. Roadless areas are among the nation’s greatest natural assets and
their ecological and economic value is too great to sacrifice. Our last wild
national forests should be protected once and for all.
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