Roadless Area Conservation Rule
The Roadless Area Conservation Rule, established on January 12, 2001, is a significant federal initiative aimed at protecting designated portions of national forests in the United States from commercial development. This rule arose from escalating concerns about environmental degradation and the importance of preserving natural habitats, particularly in the wake of extensive resource extraction activities such as mining and logging that characterized the post-World War II era. Under this rule, over 23.5 million hectares (58 million acres) of national forest land were designated as “roadless,” preventing new development activities and thereby safeguarding ecosystems and wildlife habitats.
While proponents, including environmentalists, argued that this initiative was crucial for maintaining biodiversity and ensuring public recreational opportunities, it faced substantial opposition from development interests and some political groups who viewed it as federal overreach. The rule has undergone various legal challenges, particularly during the administrations that followed, resulting in its repeal and reinstatement over the years. Notably, a court ruling in 2006 reinstated the original rule after it had been challenged and suspended. More recently, in 2023, the Tongass National Forest was also placed under the protections of the Roadless Rule, highlighting its ongoing relevance in contemporary environmental policy discussions.
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Subject Terms
Roadless Area Conservation Rule
THE LAW: Federal policy initiative designed to protect national forests from commercial development
DATE: Issued on January 12, 2001
To ensure the natural condition of the wilderness forests under federal jurisdiction and to maintain their integrity as complex ecosystems, Bill Clinton’s presidential administration issued the Roadless Area Conservation Rule, a landmark federal environmental initiative, declaring part of the national forest preserves as “roadless,” thus protected from any new mining, lumbering, drilling, and housing development interests.
Following World War II the U.S. Forest Service routinely approved private corporation projects aimed at extracting the reserves of natural resources—principally mining and logging interests—in otherwise protected national forests, a little more than 57 million hectares (140 million acres). During the mid-1990’s, amid growing concerns over global warming and emerging scientific evidence that indicated the critical importance of protecting forests, Bill Clinton’s presidential administration commissioned extensive public hearings into shaping a responsible plan to protect the national forests. Literally in its closing days, the administration issued the Roadless Area Conservation Rule, which essentially prohibited all development—logging, mining, drilling—on more than 23.5 million hectares (58 million acres) of forests and grasslands, roughly one-third of the national preserve, mostly in the West. Administration policy experts argued that the blanket protection would create secure for wildlife, birds, and plant life and help protect the supply for more than one-fifth of the country. In addition, it would provide for public recreation, hiking, kayaking, biking, and camping. The initiative permitted only emergency actions, such as clearing trees against a wildfire or cutting small-diameter trees only as necessary for habitat preservation.
Although environmentalists hailed the bold initiative, development interests and a phalanx of conservative western activists and politicians objected to the initiative as an unconstitutional overreach of federal power that would put state economies at risk. Quickly, the incoming presidential administration of George W. Bush delayed the initiative, calling for additional investigation into its scope. The Bush administration sought to give states authority to designate areas as roadless. In short order, a number of western states, most prominently Alaska, filed suit against the Clinton rule. After four years of contentious litigation, the Bush administration repealed the rule in May, 2005, and announced it would base decisions for setting aside public lands on state-by-state petitions to the Forest Service. That rule was quickly challenged in federal district court by several states and environmental activists (spearheaded by the environment-focused law firm Earthjustice). In September, 2006, the courts ruled the Bush protocol illegal, saying that a state-by-state plan violated the mandates of the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 and the Endangered Species Act of 1973. The original Clinton rule was reinstated. Shortly after, contracts for oil and gas projects (more than three hundred) approved by the Forest Service during the years when the rule had been suspended were summarily voided. In August, 2008, a Wyoming federal district court once again invalidated the original Roadless Rule.
Seeking a plan that would mediate the controversy, and acting under pressure from both environmental activists and congressional representatives concerned about the open expansion by development interests, President Barack Obama’s administration, while filing an appeal of the Wyoming decision, moved in May, 2009, to place decisions on a case-by-case basis solely with the secretary of agriculture for one year. That directive was renewed for an additional year in May, 2010, as the administration, confronting the catastrophic BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, began shaping a comprehensive environmental policy initiative.
In 2011, the Tenth Circuit Court voided the Wyoming decision, and the following year the injunction against the rule was lifted. That same year, both the state of Wyoming and the Colorado Mining Association filed a petition to the Supreme Court; both requests for review were denied. The rule faced several additional court challenges, including one brought by the state of Alaska in the 2000s to exempt the Tongass National Forest, the largest national forest in the United States. After several court rulings and counter filings, the Tongass National Forest was placed under the auspices of the Roadless Rule in 2023.
Bibliography
Bevington, Douglas. The Rebirth of Environmentalism: Grassroots Activism from the Spotted Owl to the Polar Bear. Washington, D.C.: Island Press, 2009.
Lavin, Patrick. "Celebrating 22 Years of the Roadless Rule." Defenders of Wildlife, 31 Jan. 2023, defenders.org/blog/2023/01/celebrating-22-years-of-roadless-rule. Accessed 22 July 2024.
Turner, Tom. Roadless Rules: The Struggle for the Last Wild Forests. Washington, D.C.: Island Press, 2009.
U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service. "Colorado Roadless Rule." Roadless Area Conservation, n.d.
Vaughan, Jacqueline, and Cortner, Hannah J. George W. Bush’s Healthy Forests: Reframing the Environmental Debate. Boulder: University Press of Colorado, 2005.