Green groups say forest agency breaking roadless area promise

Washington (Platts)--30Mar2006

Environmentalists on Thursday released a report claiming that pending oil
and gas drilling projects in national forests violate a US Forest Service
pledge to maintain "interim" protections for roadless areas in national
forests while the agency rewrites the Clinton administration's roadless rule.

Prepared by the Heritage Forests Campaign, the report cites six examples
of where the Forest Service is considering allowing more oil and gas
development in areas where road building is prohibited under the January 2001
rule. Among these are a proposed coalbed methane project in the HD Mountains
area in Colorado's San Juan National Forest and a plan to offer oil and gas
leases in 37 areas in Nevada's Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest.

The report also notes that, when the Forest Service announced in May 2005
it would replace the Clinton rule with one allowing states to propose plans to
manage their roadless areas, the agency said it would "maintain interim
measures to conserve inventoried roadless areas" during the state-petitioning
process. A Forest Service spokeswoman had not seen the report and could not
immediately comment on it.

The agency initiated its work on the HD Mountains and Humboldt-Toiyable
drilling plans before the announced revision of the roadless rule last year.

---Matt Spangler, matt_spangler@platts.com

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