California petitions USDA to protect roadless areas from drilling

California petitions USDA to protect roadless areas from drilling

Washington (Platts)--12Jul2006

California on Wednesday became the fifth state to ask for retention of a
Clinton administration ban on commercial development of its national forest
lands.

In 2005, the Agriculture Department scrapped the Clinton administration's
2001 "roadless rule," which blocked energy development and other commercial
activities on 58 million acres of forest land nationwide.

The rule was replaced with a process that allows state governors to
petition the USDA to preserve roadless protections, or to allow development to
go forward.

On Wednesday, California joined Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina
and New Mexico in asking for full protection of their roadless areas. Colorado
and Idaho are expected to file petitions that would allow some development of
their roadless areas, according to a Heritage Forests Campaign spokesman.

In California, 100,000 acres of Los Padres National Forest "overlap" with
roadless areas with "high oil and gas potential," according to a spokeswoman
for state attorney general Bill Lockyer.

The state's petition says, however, that roads would be allowed to be
built on existing mineral leases in roadless areas.

California and New Mexico have also sued USDA to block implementation of
the 2005 roadless rule.

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