Colorado Seeks Roads in Wilderness

A proposal by Colorado's Gov. Bill Ritter that would allow industries to build roads on some protected national forest land to expand coal mining, oil drilling and other controversial activities is putting the Obama Administration in a tricky spot. The Democratic governor of this politically important swing state is asking the administration for an exemption to certain protection laws, in part to boost the local economy, but environmentalists are balking. The proposal, which requires federal approval, addresses land designated as "roadless" wilderness under a national forest-management plan issued a decade ago. The national plan, which aimed to protect from development nearly 60 million acres of forest from coast to coast, has been challenged in court repeatedly by industries upset that it puts so much land off-limits. Just this spring, the Obama Administration was in federal court in Denver, defending the plan's validity. That case is still pending. The governor's plan would allow the development of more ski runs in 14 areas, expansion of three existing coal mines and drilling at more than 100 unexplored oil and natural-gas leases in Western Colorado. It would also allow road building to log trees afflicted by a bark-beetle infestation to reduce the fire hazard they pose to rural communities. Colorado officials say their proposal strengthens protections for all but a few swaths of the state's 4.2 million acres of roadless forest land, as it would put other conservation measures in place...more