The wilderness battle

AS THE most densely populated region in the United States, the East needs the solitude and recreation provided by National Forest wilderness areas, which are kept free of chainsaws and all-terrain vehicles. But, unlike the West, the East has few large forests unbroken by roads, which disqualify them from wilderness designation.

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To make sure that at least some woods in the East would get this high level of protection, Congress in 1975 set less pristine standards for the East's wooded areas, such as the White Mountain National Forest in New Hampshire and Maine and the Green Mountain National Forest in Vermont. But for this law to achieve its purpose, US Forest Service officials have to embrace its spirit.

Unfortunately, there is a bias among many Forest Service officials in favor of logging and road-building and against wilderness protection. President Clinton tried to ensure a bigger base of wilderness-eligible land with his Roadless Rule, which banned roads for logging and other uses on 58 million acres. Senator John Kerry supports the rule, but President Bush has sought to undo it.

In the East, proponents of extending wilderness protection must contend not just with Bush's attacks on the Clinton rule but also with policies staked out by regional Forest Service officials, including some from Clinton days, that undercut the 1975 law. These policies and their effect on wilderness designations in the East are described in a report published this month by Jim Furnish, a former top Forest Service official who left in 2002 because of differences with the Bush administration.

One policy faulted by Furnish broadens the interpretation of the kind of "improved road" that disqualifies an area for roadless designation from one suitable for passenger cars to one drivable by four-wheel-drive or even off-road vehicles. Furnish also says regional officials have required that areas proposed for wilderness protection have a sizable, heavily buffered "core of solitude" that is not even demanded of Western wilderness areas.

Furnish sees these policies at work in a proposal to drop from "roadless" status the Lamb Brook area in southern Vermont's Green Mountain National Forest. In New Hampshire, the service initially applied the policies criticized by Furnish to propose a potential wilderness in the White Mountain National Forest of 288,000 acres. Service planners then increased this to 383,000 acres after local advocates of more wilderness area showed how the original plan conflicted with national guidelines.

Such a review is in order for the Green Mountain proposal. The East as a whole will see more wilderness protected if voters reject George Bush, whose undersecretary for the Forest Service is a former timber lobbyist, and replace him with wilderness supporter John Kerry.