MISSOULA — Conservation groups and public land advocates petitioned the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) on Wednesday, demanding transparency and public meetings as the agency considers rescinding the roadless rule, a policy change that could impact millions of acres of public land across Montana and the country.
In June, the Forest Service announced intentions to repeal the roadless rule, which limits road building and logging on nearly 60 million acres of national forest land nationwide, including parts of every national forest in Montana.
MTN reached out to the U.S. Forest Service Northern Region about the petition and the roadless rule, but has not received a response. The agency has previously called the rule “outdated” and “overly restrictive.” The move to rescind it, however, has been controversial.
The petition demands that the USFS hold public meetings across the state and virtually ahead of any final decisions. It is supported by groups, including Wild Montana and Backcountry Hunters and Anglers and has been signed by more than 4,000 Montanans.
“Before finalizing the rule in 2001, the Forest Service engaged in the most extensive public process in the agency's history. It included 34 meetings here in Montana alone and over 600 across the country. Meanwhile, the current repeal process began on the Friday of Labor Day weekend with a 21-day comment period and no public meetings,” said Hilary Eisen, Wild Montana’s federal policy director. “Nevertheless, over half a million people commented and the vast majority, 99%, of those comments opposed repealing the roadless rule.”
Ahead of delivering the petition to the USFS Northern Region Offices at Fort Missoula on Wednesday, some of those behind the petition held a press conference. Eisen was joined by Ryan “Cal” Callaghan, president of Backcountry Hunters and Anglers, Jim Buchfield, former dean of the University of Montana’s School of Forestry and Jane Darnell, a retired USFS Northern Region deputy regional forester.
Darnell was involved in the rule’s creation back in 2001. She said the petition is not just about the roadless rule itself, but the process behind it.
“People care about their public lands and they care about the roadless rule, and I'll also be the first to tell you there's room for improvement in the Forest Service public processes,” Darnell said. “I’ll agree that the rule-making in 2001 was arduous. It was hard work by people inside the agency and beyond but, most of all, it was public. It was transparent, and we learned a lot about what Americans at their local level want from their public lands.”
