Colorado Mining Association appeals roadless rule to Supreme Court

The Colorado Mining Association Thursday petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to strike down the nation's rule for protecting 58.5 million acres of roadless public forests — mostly in Western states. The 28-page request for high court attention argues that "roadless" as defined in the federal government's rule is de facto wilderness and that only Congress has the power to create wilderness. Wyoming also is challenging the rule — trying to reverse a federal appeals court decision last fall in Denver. "A Supreme Court decision would enforce the boundaries between our respective branches of government and allow any permanent setting aside of millions of acres be the judgment and decision of Congress and not un-elected federal bureaucrats," said attorney Paul Seby, who submitted the CMA's petition. "Congress never considered banning the multiple use of 58.5 million acres of lands forever — including whether to put them off limits to responsible natural resource development and forest health management," Seby said. The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision last fall overturned a Wyoming federal court's decision in 2008 that found the roadless rule illegally usurped congressional power to designate wilderness. The appeals judges backed up the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule that President Clinton passed in the final days of his administration — which prohibits most road-building and commercial timber harvesting on the large remaining roadless areas of national forest land around the country...more