Regional
(2009-10-02)
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DENVER, CO
(KUNC) -
Tomorrow marks the end of an extended public comment period on Colorado's roadless rule to manage more than four million acres of roadless national forest lands. Environmentalists want the Obama Administration to throw it out and adopt a national policy, much like what President Clinton intended when he implemented a 2001 rule that banned logging, drilling and other development in roadless areas.
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Only two states, Colorado and Idaho, moved ahead with drafting their own management plans when the Bush Administration overturned the Clinton rule. Governor Ritter has maintained that Colorado is moving ahead as an insurance policy because of conflicting court decisions. But that hasn't satisfied a growing crowd of environmentalists, among them Pete Kolbenschlag.
Kolbenschlag was showing off post cards propped against a truck at Civic Center Park in Denver yesterday. They were plastered on a wall with photos and comments that a coalition of state environmental groups says it gathered during a three week road trip across Colorado. The group later hand delivered them to the Governor's office just up the street.
"We do appreciate the work that the Forest Service and the state has done to date, to improve the rule from earlier drafts," Kolbenschalg says. "However, the bottom line is it really falls short of where it needs to be to offer these lands the protection they warrant."
Environmentalists are upset because the state's proposal calls for slightly fewer acres to be protected than in the original Clinton rule. There are exceptions for coal mining near the town of Paonia on the western slope. There are also provisions that allow for some logging to treat beetle killed trees - particularly in roadless forests that jut up against ski resorts in the White River National Forest.
"I think our protection is greater, than the 2001 rule," says Mike King, Department of Natural Resources deputy director. "I think we've learned some things over the years, about what was intended with the 2001 rule that maybe it didn't actually achieve. And I think we've moved towards a broader, more protective rule for Colorado's roadless areas."
For instance, says King, the state used up-to-date maps. When the 2001 rule was written, forest managers based roadless protections on 30-year-old mapping. He says the state's plan also closes some loopholes that would have allowed road building under the old rule.
"I think the governor is convinced that we are moving towards a product that will be better for Colorado and address our unique environmental and economic situations," King says.
King has become the governor's lead spokesman on the state's roadless rule. That's because his boss - Department of Natural Resources director Harris Sherman - has been nominated by the Obama Administration to oversee the U.S. Forest Service. It's a potentially sticky situation for the state to be in. Sherman after all is credited with writing much of Colorado's roadless rule. But in a confirmation hearing this week in the U.S. Senate, he promised to excuse himself from approving or rejecting the plan that will ultimately get submitted.
Environmentalists like Pete Kolbenschlag say they've gathered more than 200,000 letters and other comments from across the country that are against Colorado's plan. He says a national roadless policy is the way to go because, after all, these are national forests, not just Colorado's.
"Opening the door to a state by state policy is really troubling to a lot of folks who don't want to see their natural legacy eroded away by different policies in different places," Kolbenschlag says.
Public comment on Colorado's proposal officially wraps up tomorrow. State officials say - if all goes as planned - they'd like to submit the rule to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack by mid-November. Vilsack has approved Idaho's plan. Though in a recent visit to Colorado, the secretary also hinted that the administration favors a consistent, national policy.
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