Officials close to final Idaho roadless plan The U.S. Forest Service is close to finishing a plan for managing more than 9.3 million acres of roadless backcountry in Idaho. The agency released a final environmental impact statement on the proposed Idaho roadless rule on Friday. The Forest Service expects to release a final draft of the proposed rule in 30 days. The plan is the culmination of a lengthy process to determine how Idaho's roadless areas and other untouched lands will be managed, preserved or opened to logging and other uses. While revisions to the proposed rule include further land protections and have appeased some environmentalists who earlier criticized the proposal, national conservation groups such as The Wilderness Society say the Idaho rule undercuts a federal roadless policy that former President Bill Clinton issued before leaving office in January 2001....