02:56 PM PST on Thursday, February 9, 2006

Associated Press

SEATTLE - Washington will join Oregon, California and New Mexico in a lawsuit challenging the Bush administration's policy on roadless areas of national forests, Gov. Chris Gregoire said Thursday.

At a news conference at outdoor retailer Recreational Equipment Inc., Gregoire said states should be allowed to implement Clinton-era forest protections to limit logging and mining in roadless areas.

Just before he left office in January 2001, President Clinton issued the Roadless Area Conservation Rule, banning development and road building on almost one-third of the nation's 192 million acres of national forest land.

The Bush administration repealed the rule last year and issued a new policy requiring states to work with U.S. Forest Service officials to devise management plans for individual forests. The revisions could allow road construction and commercial logging on 58 million acres nationally and 2 million acres in Washington.