What's New

The U.S. Forest Service is now deciding whether to open 6 million acres of the largest pristine forest in the lower 48 states - to logging, mining and drilling.  This marks Bush Administration’s most recent attack on our national forests.

Recognizing the value of New Mexico's forests, Governor Bill Richardson filed a petition for complete protection of 1.7 million acres of roadless national forests in New Mexico, making him the first western governor to petition the Bush administration for roadless area protection.

Included in the petition was a 100,000-acre area known as Valle Vidal in the Carson National Forest. The Valle Vidal is prime habitat for elk and trout, which brings hunters, fisherman and tourists from all around the region to this place of rare beauty. The Valle Vidal was added to the National Forest System after the original roadless inventories were conducted.

How You Can Help

Ask the Forest Service to protect America’s last roadless national forests.

 

Brief Summary

New Mexico's national forests are a major part of what makes our state so exceptional and unique. Healthy intact wilderness provides New Mexico with scenic vistas, unmatched recreational opportunities, pure drinking water, and habitat for native species.

Unfortunately, only a fraction of America's forests remain undisturbed by extractive industries: 16,000 miles of roads already traverse their acreage. 

In 2001, Environment New Mexico and our allies won a remarkable victory with the enactment of the Roadless Area Conservation Rule, which placed 56 million acres of pristine forest land off-limits to road-building, mining, and virtually all logging. 

Unfortunately, the Bush administration stripped away this vital protection in an effort to give away these pristine forests to the timber industry and other powerful special interests.  

As a result, Gov. Richardson filed a petition calling on the secretary to protect all of the inventoried undeveloped, or “roadless” areas in the Carson, Cibola, Gila, Lincoln, and Santa Fe National Forests, including the Valle Vidal Area in the Carson National Forest. It also calls on the secretary to implement protections provided in the Roadless Area Conservation Rule of 2001, which covered all 58.5 million unroaded acres in the United States. The Bush administration overturned that rule and replaced it with a process by which governors must petition the secretary to protect wild forests in their states.

Fortunately, a recent federal court decision by Judge Elizabeth LaPorte blocked the Bush administration's efforts and reinstated the protections established by the 2001 Roadless Rule. The decision was a huge victory in the fight to preserve America’s natural heritage.

Even though our forests are currently enjoying the protection of the 2001 Roadless Rule, the Forest Service announced that it would still be open to reviewing petitions on a state-by-state basis.  Idaho and Colorado have both submitted petitions and their forests are at risk of being opened to extractive industries.  We need to codify this rule into law and take our last wild forests off the chopping block once and for all.