Call on President Obama to uphold Roadless Rule
Resolution to Preserve Theodore Roosevelt's Legacy 2/2/09 - Across the nation and Washington State local stakeholders are calling on President Obama to uphold the popular and balanced protections for our roadless forests. Hundreds of elected officials, sportsmen, religious leaders and other stakeholders have already signed onto a resolution calling on President Obama to protect Theodore Roosevelt’s legacy.
The resolution asks President Obama to:
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Upholding the Roadless Area Conservation Rule that protects our last undeveloped national forests
- Issue a temporary moratorium on all commercial road-building and logging in all inventoried roadless areas until the rule can be fully implemented
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Preserve Alaska’s Tongass National Rainforest by reinstating its protection under the rule.
Following the most extensive public rulemaking process in history the Clinton administration created the Roadless Rule in 2001, protecting 58 million acres of national forestlands, 2 million of which are in Washington State. The 2001 rule prohibits new road construction and road based development on the third of our national forests that have not yet been roaded or developed.
For the past eight years since taking office in 2001, the Bush Administration has tried repeatedly to impede, block and eliminate the protections on our roadless forests. Now, about 45 percent of the original Roadless areas stand protected and much more is uncertain with a complicated legal landscape.
To again ensure the protections of our Roadless forests, the Washington Wilderness Coalition has been working tirelessly to lead a coalition of conservation groups to gain stakeholder support needed to pressure the Obama administration uphold the Roadless Rule.
The call to protect Roadless areas comes from a diverse group of Washingtonians, 200 local elected officials, more than 90 religious leaders, and 70 different local interest groups, including hunting, fishing and recreation groups.
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