logging

Environmental attorneys were encouraged by the tone of a final 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals hearing on the controversial 2001 Clinton Roadless Rule in Denver Wednesday. Representing a coalition of conservation and wildlife groups, lawyers for the firm Earthjustice are arguing for the court to reinstate rules put in place by Pres. Clinton to protect more than 58 million acres of largely roadless public lands nationwide, including more than 4 million acres in Colorado.

AVON — Colorado mountaineer Aron Ralston, famous for a bouldering mishap in Utah which he survived by amputating his own forearm, has been touring the state with other recreation proponents pushing for a huge new wilderness proposal called Hidden Gems.
“The Hidden Gems Wilderness Proposal would counteract the increasing pressures of extractive development and motorized use,” [...]

A coalition of environmental groups looking to drum up local support for a huge new wilderness bill that could protect up to 450,000 acres of national forest land in Colorado from oil and gas production, timber sales and mining have stirred up opposition from an unlikely quarter.
Mountain bikers, snowmobilers, dirt bikers and other off-road enthusiasts [...]

Thursday’s court filing by the Department of Justice in the 10th Circuit Court in Wyoming, which has federal jurisdiction over Colorado, indicating the DOJ will appeal two previous rulings against the 2001 Clinton roadless rule is a strong sign which way the Obama administration is leaning on the issue.
President Obama, as both an Illinois senator [...]

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack has been making the rounds in Colorado the last couple of days, earning points from enviros at the North American Biochar conference in Boulder and casting some doubt on Colorado’s proposed roadless rule in Denver.

VAIL — A small but scary wildfire that broke out in the national forest above West Vail Friday afternoon perfectly underscored the ongoing debate between the state’s Department of Natural Resources and environmentalists over Colorado’s controversial roadless rule.

While conservation groups called Wednesday’s federal appeals court decision reinstating the Clinton-era roadless rule a major victory, the state of Colorado contends its own revised rule is still a far more practical way of managing the state’s 4.2 million roadless acres.

Mike King, deputy director of Colorado’s Department of Natural Resources, said Wednesday that the 2001 Clinton rule, which provided sweeping protections against road building on nearly 60 million acres of largely undeveloped public lands nationwide, did not take into consideration wildfire mitigation or other critical economic drivers.

The long, winding and seemingly endless road to adopting Colorado’s controversial roadless rule took another turn Monday, when Gov. Bill Ritter announced that an even further revised version will be announced by the end of the month, with the public then getting another 60 days to comment on the plan.

Environmentalists won’t allow President Obama to sit on the bench of sports escapism for even a minute without reminding him of his obligations to reject the Bush administration’s eight-year full-court press on America’s national forests.