OPINION/COMMENTARY

Bush Upholds Roadless Rule of Law

The Bush Administration’s new rule ending the four-year-old ban on developing roadless areas of national forests will improve the environment and the economy, according to NCPA Senior Fellow H. Sterling Burnett. The new rule ends a ban on road-building and development imposed by President Clinton in the waning days of his administration. The so-called “roadless rule” created de facto wilderness areas over 58.5 million acres of backcountry in 38 states and Puerto Rico through executive order, and without having to get congressional approval. Most of the land is in 12 Western states. “President Bush sided with the rule of law, upholding the notion that the people, through their elected representatives, should have input into designating what is wilderness,” Dr. Burnett said. There are more than 98 million acres of land designated as wilderness in the U.S. – almost equal to all the land developed in the U.S. since Columbus first reached the New World. Clinton’s rule would have increased that area by more than 60 percent. What’s worse, according to Dr. Burnett, is that the Clinton ban risked massive wildfires by limiting forest management options, and also could harm wildlife over the long-term....

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