01:33 PM PDT on Thursday, May 5, 2005

SEATTLE - Sierra Club opposed their final anti-roadless rule announced today by the US Forest Service and the Bush administration, citing the abandonment of current forest protections counter to strong public demand.

"This is not a Roadless Area Conservation Rule, it is a Road Creation Rule," said Roger Singer with Sierra Club in Seattle.

The regulations announced today abandon the popular 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule that established protections against building new roads, logging and other resource extraction for 58.5 million acres of national wild forests across 39 states, including over two million acres in Washington state.

"Unfortunately, the Bush administration has followed through on their plans to ignore the public's desire to protect our forests in Washington and across the nation," said Singer. "They have once again purposefully acted to remove existing and sensible protections for wildlife habitat, clean drinking water and people's recreational opportunities."

The final rule removes an equal level of protection for all forests, instead submitting them to a lengthy and potentially pointless petition process of recommendations from individual governors. While governors can petition for piecemeal protection of none, some or all forests, the Secretary of Agriculture has the authority to eventually dismiss those petitions. Therefore, no wild forest has any assured protection as set by the original Roadless Area Conservation Rule.

"We already know Mark Rey, the former timber industry lobbyist now in charge at USDA, opposes protecting wild forests - but we expect better from USFS Chief Bosworth and other Forest Service professionals," said Singer. "Their decisions on subsidized road construction in our wild forests should be in the public's interest, not the timber industry's interest."

Over four million people have spoken in support of protecting wild forests, 2.3 million during the establishment of the original Roadless Rule, when 600 local public hearings were held, and 1.7 million people commented likewise again last year.

"The original rule worked and it had strong public support," said Singer. "It's a sad day for our wild forests and those who use them."