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Executive Summary
As the new home of NMPIRG's environmental work,
Environment New Mexico can be contacted with any questions regarding this report.
A fter decades of scientific inquiry, 600 public
hearings, and a record 1.6 million comments,
the Clinton administration enacted the
Roadless Area Conservation Rule in January
2001 to protect 58.5 million acres of wild national
forest land from most commercial logging
and road-building. The Roadless Rule ensures
that our national forests will continue to provide
clean drinking water for millions of Americans,
wildlife habitat, endless recreational opportunities,
and other important values. The rule also
allows the U.S. Forest Service to address the estimated
$10.3 billion backlog in needed roads
maintenance instead of using taxpayer dollars to
build new roads.
The American people have spoken in favor of
protecting roadless areas within our national
forests. If the volume of their voices could be
measured by the comments already sent to the
Clinton and Bush administrations, the roar
would be deafening. Prior to the 2004 comment
period, New Mexico residents had submitted
20,041 comments in favor of protecting the
state’s 1.6 million acres of roadless land.
Fully understanding the public’s dedication to
protecting roadless areas requires looking at
their myriad economic and ecological benefits:
• Sixty million Americans rely on drinking water
from the national forests. Roadless areas, for
their pristine and road-free condition, provide
some of the purest of that water. In the
Southwest Forest Service Region, which includes
New Mexico, drinking water is worth $205.1
million annually.
• Non-motorized recreation has become more and
more popular over time as Americans participate
in everything from bicycling to hunting in
roadless areas. In 2001, 595,000 New Mexico
residents took part in hunting, fishing, and
wildlife-watching, contributing $1.0 billion to
the state economy.
• America’s wildlife has seen much of its habitat
lost to development in recent decades. Some of
the most unspoiled habitat for hundreds of
threatened, endangered, and declining species is
found in roadless areas. New Mexico’s national
forests are home to 34 at-risk species that could
be harmed by destruction of roadless areas.
Despite the enormous benefits of national
forests, historically, their value has been pegged
to the timber products they provide. The Forest
Service, however, has sold national forest land
to timber companies at such low cost that the
agency loses millions of dollars each year.
National forests are federal lands that belong to
all Americans and deserve federal protection.
Unfortunately, the Bush administration has
proposed repealing the Roadless Rule and
replacing it with a meaningless process that
allows governors to seek protections for roadless
areas in their states – or seek logging, mining,
and drilling for these pristine forests instead.
Even if a governor seeks protections, the Forest
Service could still refuse the proposal.
In addition to repealing the Roadless Rule, the
Bush administration has proposed a dramatic
change in the way all of our national forests are
managed. At issue are new regulations for the
National Forest Management Act, the law that
requires each of the 155 national forests to have
a management plan in place. The draft
regulations the administration proposed in
December 2002 would weaken environmental
and wildlife protections and limit the public’s
ability to participate in decisions that affect our
national forests. Moreover, the Bush
administration has already pushed through
numerous harmful policies, including the socalled
Healthy Forests Restoration Act, which
increases logging under the guise of fighting
forest fires.
Before finalizing the proposal to repeal the
Roadless Rule, the administration has two
choices: it can continue pandering to timber
companies, mining companies, and energy
companies that stand to make millions in the
short term at taxpayers’ expense, or it can
choose to heed public opinion and preserve
roadless areas to ensure that generations to
come enjoy the same benefits that we have.
The right decision seems clear. Without
question, roadless areas are one of the nation’s
greatest natural assets; their ecological and
economic value is too great to sacrifice.
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