ANCHORAGE, Alaska — A federal judge in Anchorage has sided with the village of Kake and reinstated the roadless rule in the Tongass National Forest.
 

The Organized Village of Kake sought to end the Bush administration decision that exempted the Tongass from the Clinton-era Roadless Rule. The rule protects roadless areas in national forests from commercial logging and road building.
 

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In an Aug. 13 filing, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) reserved its right to appeal a district court ruling and support the 2001 roadless rule that protects millions of acres of forest land. If the district court ruling striking down the rule is allowed to stand, it would conflict with a recent appeals court decision upholding the roadless rule. The administration's support for the roadless rule could bring years of conflict over the rule's status to an end.

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The roadless rule was one of President Bill Clinton’s signature environmental achievements. Thanks to it — and citizen protests and legal efforts by environmental groups — very few miles of new roads have been built in protected areas since the rule took effect in 2001. But enduring legal confusion (the rule has been upheld in the Ninth Circuit, shot down in district court in Wyoming) has permitted regional foresters to move forward with commercial logging projects in Idaho, Colorado, Oregon and the White Mountains in New Hampshire.

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Colorado’s successful effort to get the Bush administration to stop fast-tracking a proposed roadless rule for the management of 4.4 million acres of the state’s untrammeled backcountry is winning praise from public policy watchdog groups and conservationists.

The Colorado Independent disclosed last week that the U.S. Department of Agriculture hoped to publish the controversial Colorado roadless rule in the Federal Register by Jan. 16, four days before the inauguration of President-elect Barack Obama.