Ritter submits roadless-area protection plan to White House

The haggling over how to protect roadless national-forest land in Colorado intensified Tuesday as Gov. Bill Ritter submitted a newly sweetened plan to the Obama administration for approval. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack issued a statement praising the plan for providing "strong protections" — then announced that the Forest Service will look into "adding significantly to the number of acres receiving a higher level of protection." At stake is how much recreation, mining, logging and other activities the government will allow on 4.19 million acres of Colorado's 14.4 million national-forest acres. Environment-advocacy groups pressing for rigorous, consistent protection raised concerns that Colorado's plan would weaken a contested 2001 national rule covering 58 million acres nationwide. Forest Service regional chief Rick Cables said federal officials will feed Colorado's plan into "the federal process, to do the analysis with public input."...more