Preserve roadless rule.

Byline: The Register-Guard

President Bush often cites Theodore Roosevelt as a role model, but the current White House occupant has fallen abysmally short of matching his predecessor's environmental legacy.

The latest example occurred last week when the administration outlined a proposal to exempt the Tongass National Forest in Alaska from the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule. The move helps clear the way for dozens of pending timber sales in the Tongass, the largest rain forest in the United States and a national treasure.

The roadless rule was finalized in 2001 after years of study and hundreds of public hearings. It protected nearly 60 million acres of national forests, including nearly 2 million acres in Oregon, from most road building and logging, although it made exceptions for work necessary to protect forest health, fight fires and ensure public safety.

The rule acknowledged two simple facts: Most remaining tracts of unroaded federal lands have been left undisturbed because their recreational value is high, their resource value is low or both. And the Forest Service is unable to maintain the vast road network it has already, much less take on responsibility for miles of new roads in remote areas.

The roadless rule has been the target of numerous legal, legislative and administrative challenges since its enactment. Western states and the timber industry have worked to overturn it, filing a total of nine lawsuits, some which continue to percolate in the courts.

The Bush administration's announcement followed a decision in one of those lawsuits. U.S. District Court Judge Clarence A. Brimmer in Wyoming blocked the institution of the roadless rule nationwide, saying the rule violated environmental laws and calling it a "thinly veiled attempt to designate wilderness areas."

Brimmer's ruling is just the latest in a series of thumbs-up and thumbs-down decisions on the rule. Not long after its enactment, the roadless rule was invalidated by a federal court in Idaho, but that decision was overturned in December by the 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in San Francisco. The see-sawing is likely to continue, with environmental groups already announcing they will appeal the Wyoming ruling.

Although the Bush administration initially said it would uphold the roadless rule, it has steadily worked to undermine it and other important protections for national forests. Last month, federal officials announced that individual states will be allowed to file for exemptions from the roadless rule, a move that weakened the rule's federal scope and hopes for uniform application.

Now, Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman has announced that the rule doesn't apply to the Tongass, a forest that already has been subjected to extensive logging. Plans for new roads target prime remaining forests and wildlife habitat.

It's clear that the Bush administration has chosen not to leave the ultimate fate of the roadless rule up to the courts. By allowing states to seek exceptions and opening up the Tongass to logging, the government is hamstringing the roadless rule and the protections it provides.

That's not how the majority of Americans want to treat the nation's forests. Administration officials should remember that there is broad public support for the roadless rule. During its rulemaking process, the U.S. Forest Service received nearly 2 million public comments, the vast majority of them opposing new forest roads. In Oregon, 91 percent of nearly 65,000 comments favored protecting roadless areas.

Americans have made it clear that they want to protect what remains of intact, roadless lands in their national forests. The administration should heed their wishes.