Friday, August 29, 2008

Idaho roadless rule poised for passage

Conservationists express support for plan to manage 9.3 million acres of Idaho backcountry


By JASON KAUFFMAN
Express Staff Writer

A plan to manage Idaho’s 9.3 million acres of roadless national forest land is set to be finalized next week, Idaho Lt. Gov. Jim Risch told the Idaho Mountain Express on Wednesday. The Idaho Roadless Rule could become law as soon as early October. Photo by Mountain Express

From the inland rainforests of the state's Panhandle region to the high and wild Pioneer Mountains in the south, Idaho is home to more roadless national forest land not designated as wilderness than any other state save Alaska.

At a press conference in Boise later today, Idaho Lt. Gov. Jim Risch is expected to announce that a plan setting the future management direction for these 9.3 million acres of roadless land is nearly complete.

Speaking to the Idaho Mountain Express on Wednesday, Risch said a final environmental impact statement designating the Idaho Roadless Rule as the preferred alternative will be released to the public next week. Once released, the document will be reviewed by U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Ed Schafer, who will then make the final decision on whether to select the Idaho rule, which is designated as alternative four.

As of press time, no details were available for the other three alternatives, which do include a No Action alternative.

Except in rare circumstances, the new Idaho rule would bar development activities that would impact the roadless characteristics of the state's 251 roadless areas. It would not allow as much development a draft plan released last year, nor as much as the plans set by each national forest in the state.

Under a separate rule-making process that states can elect to enter into, then-Idaho Gov. Jim Risch submitted Idaho's roadless rule petition to the Roadless Area Conservation National Advisory Committee in Washington, D.C., in 2006. Idaho Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter subsequently endorsed Risch's plan after taking office.

Having seen the specifics of the final Idaho rule set to be released next week, Risch said it adheres very closely to his original petition. He said he's "cautiously optimistic" that Schafer will select the Idaho rule, which was crafted with input from 30 different counties throughout the state.

Risch said it's possible that Schafer may ask Agriculture Undersecretary Mark Rey to review and make the final decision.

Once an alternative is selected by Schafer or Rey, the final document will be published in the Federal Register. Thirty days after it's published, perhaps as soon as early October, the Idaho roadless rule will become law, Risch said.

"Idaho will have the first roadless rule written by a state," he said.

The release of the final Idaho rule follows a recent decision by U.S. District Judge Clarence A. Brimmer of Wyoming authorizing a permanent injunction against the so-called Roadless Rule, enacted by the Clinton administration in 2001. The new Idaho rule was set to replace that nationwide rule, which protected 58.5 million acres of roadless national forest land across the country.

Conservationists are appealing Brimmer's decision.

More than 1.2 million roadless acres spread throughout the Sawtooth National Forest will be included in the new Idaho rule. The vast majority of the roadless lands on the Sawtooth are found locally, surrounding the Wood River Valley in the Smoky, Pioneer, Boulder and White Cloud mountains.

Risch, who was a forestry student at the University of Idaho in the 1960s, said the Idaho rule has broad support among conservationists, industry and motorized recreationists.

"This is the right thing to do," he said.

Jonathan Oppenheimer, a spokesman for the Idaho Conservation League, said the most significant improvement to the Idaho rule since a draft version was released late last year is the inclusion of language that specifies when and where temporary roads can be built in roadless areas for forest health projects. He said the draft plan was too vague, and could have opened up over 5 million acres of roadless land designated under a Backcountry Restoration management category to these kinds of projects.

Oppenheimer said that under the new version of the rule he's seen, community protection zones would be established inside designated roadless areas extending .5 miles out from the boundary of "at-risk communities." These changes were based on recommendations made earlier this year by the Roadless Area Conservation National Advisory Committee. The committee also suggested the community protection zones be established in areas within 1.5 miles of at-risk communities where steep slopes could aid the spread of wildfire or where geographic features aid in creating an effective fire break, such as a road or ridge top.

The changes mean projects could not be completed deep inside remote areas far from any community under the guise of forest health, Oppenheimer said.

Temporary roads built under the committee's suggested guidelines would need to be reclaimed once the work was completed and would only be accessible for uses related to forest health work.

The Idaho roadless rule includes three additional management designations in addition to Backcountry Restoration. They range from Wild Land Recreation, the most protective classification, to Primitive and finally General Forest, which would allow for timber cutting, mining and road-building projects.

Under the draft plan released last year, 609,000 roadless acres across the state were designated under the General Forest category, which didn't please conservationists. This included a 21,000-acre chunk of roadless land in the southern Pioneer Mountains.

Oppenheimer said the final version of the Idaho rule bumps up protection for that portion of the Pioneers to Backcountry Restoration and decreases the amount of General Forest lands designated statewide to about 400,000 acres. On the Sawtooth, the amount of General Forest designated has dropped from 107,000 acres in the draft plan to 55,000 acres in the final plan, he said.

One of the most controversial aspects of the draft plan would have designated about 400,000 acres in southeast Idaho's Caribou-Targhee National Forest in the General Forest category to allow phosphate mining. Oppenheimer said that number has been dropped to 200,000 acres.

He said phosphate mining would be further limited to just five designated roadless areas. He said the original plan included an exception allowing phosphate mining in all roadless areas designated as Backcountry Restoration. Phosphate mining generally takes place only in southeast Idaho.

Oppenheimer said another improvement would re-designate several popular spots from the Primitive designation to Wild Land Recreation. Areas highlighted for the change include the Rapid River Roadless Area west of Riggins and the Moose Mountain Roadless Area in Idaho's Clearwater region.

"It's encouraging to see the state of Idaho endorse this," he said.

The Idaho roadless rule does not affect motorized or grazing uses already permitted inside designated roadless areas in the state's national forests. The public will not be able to comment on the final Idaho roadless rule.




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