This editorial is correct that the nation’s wilderness areas belong to the nation, but incorrect about the development of the natural resources within, which also belong to the nation, and their development, while retaining an appropriate balance of wilderness and commerce, is also vital to our national life.
An excerpt.
Editorial: Wrong road
Policy on roadless areas runs into ditch
- Published 12:00 am PDT Saturday, October 7, 2006
The Bush administration claims it wants to give states more say over how national forests are managed. That's why -- administration officials say -- they reversed a Clinton-era plan for preserving 58 million acres of public lands where no roads have been carved.
Yet the record shows the Bush administration has been selective in heeding local desires for these so-called roadless areas. In Colorado, federal land managers this year offered up 20,000 acres of roadless forest for natural-gas development even though Colorado hadn't yet had a chance to petition the government on how this land should be managed.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is frustrated by the Bush administration's plan for national forests in Southern California. The governor's Resources Agency is appealing a Forest Service plan that would allow road development and energy development on large swaths of the Cleveland National Forest in Orange County and other areas.
As is now clear, the Bush administration is using the states-rights argument as a smoke screen for opening up more forestlands for logging and energy development. A ruling two weeks ago by U.S. District Court Judge Elizabeth D. Laporte bolsters this conclusion.
