GLOBE EDITORIAL
Roads to ruinAPPALACHIAN TRAIL vistas in New Hampshire, Vermont, and the South could be scarred by clear-cut timbering or new ski slopes if the Bush administration succeeds in reversing Bill Clinton's roadless rule, which protects one-third of the national forests. At this point the danger remains slight because even if the Bush version of the rule is adopted -- the public comment period ends Sept. 14 -- many of the affected forests have management plans that do not permit such uses.
But management plans are always subject to change. Without the protection of the roadless rule, not just the Appalachian Trail but millions of acres all over the country will be more exposed to logging and expanded recreational uses. Clinton's rule, which was his greatest environmental achievement, stops the taxpayer-financed construction of the roads that make exploitation of the forests possible. A mapping analysis released this week by the Campaign to Protect America's Lands brings home to hikers that crucial sections of the Appalachian Trail, including the White Mountains, depend on roadless national forests for their long-term protection. The analysis should help rally support to preserve Clinton's roadless rule, which was adopted after the most public support ever recorded in the history of federal rule-making. It is now under attack in federal courts and by the Bush administration, which favors making governors responsible for proposing roadless designations. If Bush succeeds and bulldozers start cutting up national forests, those tracts will no longer be eligible for action by Congress to make them wilderness areas, the highest level of preservation. Forty years ago yesterday President Lyndon Johnson signed the Wilderness Act. Initially it preserved 9 million acres; now it is 106 million acres, 4.7 percent of the country. In the law's history, no president has signed legislation protecting less wilderness than George W. Bush, just 500,000 acres. For Ronald Reagan, not famous as a conservationist, the total was 10.6 million acres. The woods roads not only let in tree harvesting vehicles, they also make the national forests more accessible to recreational off-road vehicles. These cause erosion, noise, and air pollution. Hunters, anglers, and conservationists have all criticized the Bush administration's rejection of the Clinton rule.
Mark Rey, the former timber lobbyist who is Agriculture Department undersecretary for natural resources and the environment, calls the Appalachian Trail alarm a "red herring." He said protection of the trail is a "settled political issue." But no environmental dispute can be considered a "settled political issue" with an administration that tries to undo restrictions on poisons like arsenic and mercury. The Appalachian Trail and the national forests need the protection of Clinton's rule. © Copyright 2004 Globe Newspaper Company.
|
