Farm Bureau Urges Roadless Initiative Revision

April 25, 2001

A Clinton administration directive banning road building and logging on 58.5 million acres of national forests would hurt livestock operations that use federal lands, according to American Farm Bureau Federation President Bob Stallman. The farm leader urged Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman to review the roadless initiative and to create an alternative policy that benefits the multiple users of national forests.

"The primary impacts of this rulemaking are a loss of local forest planning ability, restrictions on multiple uses within the forests, and a corresponding loss of flexibility to adapt to changing conditions," Stallman wrote in a letter to Veneman. Farm Bureau believes that the goals and objectives of the Forest Service can better be achieved "by withdrawing the rule and its blanket prohibitions and reissuing it as a policy that recognizes unique local conditions require local responses," Stallman said.

Individual national forests have provided protection for sensitive areas through the forest planning process, Stallman said, "and there is no indication that these protections would cease if a rule were not enacted. Very little road building has occurred in inventoried roadless areas under the current system in the 22 years since the last roadless inventory was conducted."

He added that the Forest Service has anticipated that building roads in inventoried roadless areas will gradually decrease in the future "even without this rule due to economic and ecological factors, changes in agency policy, increasing controversy and litigation, and potential listings under the Endangered Species Act"

Stallman called the final rule's blanket prohibitions "counterproductive to sound forest management," and said they would hinder the Forest Service's response "to wildfires, pest infestations and other catastrophic or unforeseen situations in the national forests. Temporary roads and/or timber management might be necessary in order to prevent destruction of segments of the national forests."

He said a new roadless policy should be established at the local forest level to provide the necessary management flexibility and that "approved existing uses should be continued." Stallman added that any roadless policy must provide "sufficient management flexibility to respond to emergencies and changed conditions."