Agriculture Secretary to Personally Approve Projects in 'Roadless' Areas

[Old Coot]

Source: The Washington Post

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack today issued a temporary order governing development in "roadless" areas of national forests, requiring all new projects to be approved by him personally.

Vilsack's order, which will last only a year, is the latest turn in an eight-year battle over 58.5 million acres of pristine woods. President Clinton made these areas off-limits in 2001, but Bush effectively re-opened some in 2005. That began a series of court cases that ultimately replaced that national policy with a patchwork of regional rules.

Today Vilsack, whose purview includes the U.S. Forest Service, did what environmental groups had been urging: call a "time-out."

<snip>

"You've got communities and workers and capital tied up while -- basically, while the feds figure out what they want to be when they grow up," Matson said.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/28/AR2009052803049.html

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I liked that last sentence.

[Hayduke Lives]

1. It's simple

There is no justification for any commercial activity in the remaining roadless areas of federal land. If it's still roadless after 100 years of corporate greed and corrupt federal mismanagement, it probably needs to remain roadless.

I'll bet you dollars to dimes that any proposed commercial extraction will need to be subsidized by your tax dollars. Frankly, most roadless areas exist because they're remote, inaccessible and the extraction of resources doesn't make economic sense. Those welfare loggers and welfare miners should go get real jobs like the rest of us and leave my American wilderness alone.

[MasonJar]

2. I do not trust Vilsack.

[Metta]

3. Yes, he hasn't proven he understands that our national areas are what we're made of.

... not sure he understands the value of preserving that.

[bertman]

4. This is a good start.