Idaho's Roadless WILDLIFE HABITAT endangered- Roadless Area Conservation Final Environmental Impact Statement released
The Bush Administration is employing a new back-door plan to subvert the present policy of protecting Roadless Wildlife Habitat Areas towards a policy of extracting the timber and minerals from these critical areas.
The state has petitioned (PETITION OF GOVERNOR JAMES E. RISCH FOR ROADLESS AREA MANAGEMENT IN IDAHO, OCTOBER 5, 2006) the federal government through a law previously not used in the fight to log and mine our precious Roadless Wildlife Habitat (5 U.S.C. 553 of the Administrative Procedures Act, 1.28 of title 7). The use of this Administrative Procedures Act, if successful, will set dangerous precedents for the rest of the nation’s Roadless Wildlife Habitat Areas.
This petition has allowed the U.S. Forest Service to initiate an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), called the Roadless Area Conservation EIS, which will, inevitably, lead to a decision to log and mine the majority of the remaining Roadless Wildlife Habitat Areas in Idaho.
Order a free copy of the Roadless Area Conservation Final EIS, specify that they send you a full set of the documents, and request it either in print or cd disk. rschneider@fs.fed.us
or
The final EIS (over 2,000 pages, including appendices) may be found on the internet at http://roadless.fs.fed.us/
The Roadless Area Conservation EIS divides the remaining Roadless Wildlife Habitat into four new categories or “Management Themes”; (1) Wild Land Recreation, (2) Primitive, (3) Back Country /Restoration, and (4) General Forest, Rangeland, and Grassland.
Not surprisingly, the Administration’s plan would impact over two/thirds of the remaining 9.3 million acres of pristine Roadless Wildlife Habitat Areas in Idaho, severely reducing its value for wildlife.
The General Forest, Rangeland, and Grassland “Management Theme” would be heavily impacted with roads, logging, and mining. This "Management Theme" will be the most destructive element of this DEIS. Most of the 609,500 acres of this category will be given to the phosphate mining industry from wild-lands in Southern Idaho. One of the nicest descriptions of this trade off is, World-class Premier Wildlife Habitat exchanged for Superfund Cleanup Sites.
The "Management Theme", Back Country Restoration, despite its rhetoric, will allow road construction, logging, and other development on 5.2 million acres. The effects of this "Management Theme" will fall somewhere between Superfund Cleanup site and its present pristine state of undeveloped wildlife habitat.
The Primitive "Management Theme" will open the door to some logging and road building on 1.6 million acres. These areas will, then, will fall short of the Forest Service's recommended wilderness suitability criteria.
The Wild Land Recreation “Management Theme” (for 1.4 million acres) will be altered only slightly. Timber harvest would be permitted in these areas under certain exceptions. These areas will show only little evidence of human use. This category would, somewhat, retain protections similar to the same protection as Roadless Wildlife Habitat enjoys now and similar protection that all Roadless Wildlife Habitat will continue to enjoy in other states.
One of the many impacts of this Roadless Area Conservation EIS will be to open the door to the destruction of our Roadless Wildlife Habitat heritage. The door will be opened to further development within Idaho and will set precedents for other regions to follow. Presently, these areas are protected from destructive development. This Roadless Area Conservation EIS will change those protections. From the existing status of protected wildlife habitat areas, the door will be opened to develop many of these areas.
A better alternative, and one not even considered by this EIS, is the permanent protection of these important wild life habitat areas. The House of Representatives is presently considering H.R. 1975, the Northern Rockies Ecosystem Protection Act. This bill gives permanent protection to all remaining pristine roadless areas larger than 5000 acres within the northern Rockies ecosystem, and provides for the rehabilitation of Roadless Wildlife Habitat Areas that have already been impacted by the resource extractive industries.
FOC members and associates have commented aggressively on the negative effects of this EIS.
The agency created a new alternative for the final EIS, Alternative 4 (the Modified Idaho Roadless Rule), based on public comments to the Draft EIS.
This new alternative is the preferred alternative (meaning that this is the alternative being considered) and modifies the proposed action of the Draft EIS by:
(in the words of the agency)
1) Reducing the amount of roadless areas placed in the General Forest,
Rangeland and Grassland (GFRG) and reconfigureing them to more closely
reflect on the ground conditions of individual roadless areas.
2) Changing the permissions for road construction and reconstruction to
facilitate timber cutting, sale and removal in the
Backcountry/Restoration theme to focus on reducing risks from wildland
fire to at-risk communities and municipal water supply systems based on
guidance provided in HFRA §101 (16)(B) and narrowed to only include
temporary roads.
3) Removing the permission for road construction and reconstruction to
access phosphate deposits in the Backcountry/Restoration theme.
4) Removing the permission for road construction and reconstruction to
access oil and gas, and geothermal development in the GFRG theme. Road
construction and reconstruction would still be permitted to access
unleased phosphate deposits in the GFRG theme, but only in specific
areas.
5) Changing the public notice requirements to make modifications in the
future to require public comment, not just public notice on all changes.
These changes represent only one small step in the right direction. They do not go far enough to actually protect these rare and pristine roadless wildlife habitats.
You may still make a comment on this new alternative by writing the Forest Service at rschneider@fs.fed.us
The only hope left for protecting our wild heritage is the court system. If you can donate time or resources to this effort, please contact Friends of the Clearwater Staff at foc@friendsoftheclearwater.org
For more information on this important issue, see the links below.
Public comment notice in Federal Register
Forest Service website for the Idaho Roadless Rule
Heritage Forests website for Idaho Roadless Rule
Read Friends of the Clearwater's scoping comments
Idaho’s wild backcountry is a natural treasure for all Americans. Idahoans have a strong affinity for the rugged, beautiful backcountry and essentially want it unchanged. Friends of the Clearwater advocates maintaining the status quo, protection. The proposed rule is a roll back of protections on places Idahoans — and Americans — hold dear.
Idaho’s backcountry is special to Idaho and all America, just as it is. These areas belong to all of us. Idahoans love their backcountry and don’t want it to change.
We cannot allow the federal government and developers to open the door to spoiling Idaho’s special places. In these times of rapid change, we need to think ahead to guard those quiet, special places where we escape the noise and crowds of everyday life. Let’s keep existing protections in place or provide permanent protection to keep Idaho’s backcountry areas as they are.
• “Keep our backcountry like it is.”
• “Don’t open the door to developers.”
• “Idahoans and Americans love their backcountry as it is.
• We are working to support the legal status quo — not pushing for new rules. This plan is taking existing protection away from our special areas.
• Common sense is on our side. There is very little reason to develop these places — or they would have been developed long ago.
• Idahoans and Americans love their national forests as they are. Particularly in fast growing communities like Lewiston and Moscow, and Coeur d’Alene. Idahoans are concerned about the rapid rate of change which is changing the face of Idaho — for the worse.
These are not Roadless Areas- These are rare pristine natural habitat areas which are accessed by trails, within the National Forests.
These special areas are what make Idaho great.
“Folks in Idaho want their special areas protected too. Their hunting, fishing and outdoor heritage is just as valuable as everywhere else. The federal government should not hand Idaho’s special places over to special interests. We can do better.”
• Phosphate mining. “Idahoans do not want to see their favorite areas handed over to mining companies and turned into Superfund sites. We have seen that much too often in Idaho. Idahoans — and Americans — do not want to see protections for these special places rolled back.”
• This plan provides loopholes, especially in the Management Theme, Back Country/ Restoration. “Existing rules already allow flexibility for managing specific problems as they come up; we don’t need to open the door to new development by rolling back existing protections for Idaho’s backcountry.”
• We respect the people who live in rural communities and their fear of wildfire: “We all agree that the safety of homes and communities is of paramount importance. But the roadless rule is not about homes and communities; it’s about the backcountry. We need to prioritize projects that protect human safety, not open the backcountry to special interests.”
