The U.S. Supreme Court has turned away an appeal challenging a
federal rule that bars development on 50 million acres of roadless areas
in national forests. The justices said Monday they will leave in place a federal
appeals court decision that upheld the so-called roadless rule that took
effect late in the presidency of Bill Clinton. The state of Wyoming and the Colorado Mining Association
said closing so much forest land to development has had serious
consequences for residents of Western states and the logging, mining and
drilling industries. Supporters of the rule said the nation’s forests need
protection from development to preserve pristine areas that provide
wildlife and natural resource habitat for hunting, fishing and
recreation.The challenge centered on the contention that the U.S.
Forest Service essentially declared forests to be wilderness areas, a
power that rests with Congress under the 1964 Wilderness Act. The U.S. Forest Service currently manages more than 190
million acres of land used for multiple purposes that must comply with
strict rules on land use changes spelled out in the federal Wilderness
Act and National Environmental Policy Act. The roadless rule enacted under Clinton in 2001 had been
upheld earlier by both the Denver-based 10th U.S. Circuit Court of
Appeals and the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit in separate cases. The 10th Circuit overturned Cheyenne-based U.S. District
Judge Clarence Brimmer who had decided the rule created a de facto
wilderness area...more
Issues of concern to people who live in the west: property rights, water rights, endangered species, livestock grazing, energy production, wilderness and western agriculture. Plus a few items on western history, western literature and the sport of rodeo... Frank DuBois served as the NM Secretary of Agriculture from 1988 to 2003. DuBois is a former legislative assistant to a U.S. Senator, a Deputy Assistant Secretary of Interior, and is the founder of the DuBois Rodeo Scholarship.
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