Anchorage Daily News

A federal appeals court Wednesday reinstated a rule created in the final days of the Clinton administration that banned logging, mining and new roads on nearly 40 million acres of national forest land.

It's not clear yet how the decision will affect the Tongass National Forest, which was exempted from the ban six years go.

The decision by a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reinstates most of the so-called "Roadless Rule," issued by President Bill Clinton in 2001.

The court case began after President George W. Bush repealed the Clinton rule and issued his own roadless rule, giving states discretion to ban development in affected national forest land.

The 9th Circuit, based in San Francisco, sided with several Western states and environmental groups that said the Bush rule violated the National Environmental Policy and Endangered Species acts.

Lawyers involved in the case said the 9th Circuit reinstated the Clinton era rule everywhere except Idaho and the Tongass. The Tongass was exempted from the roadless rule in 2003.

Forest Service officials on Wednesday refused to discuss how the ruling will impact the Tongass exemption.

The 9th Circuit ruling isn't the final word from the courts. A related case is pending in the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, where environmentalists are appealing a Wyoming District Court decision that struck down the Clinton roadless rule.

"It's up and down like a yo-yo," said Tom Partin, president of the American Forest Resource Council, a timber industry group. "It seems to be bouncing from one court to the other."

The Obama administration cited that legal uncertainty this spring in ordering a one-year moratorium on most road-building in national forests.

A May 28 directive by Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack gives him sole decision-making authority over all proposed forest management or road construction projects in roadless areas in all states except Idaho. Idaho was one of two states that developed its own roadless rule under the Bush policy.

Vilsack has approved one roadless sale in the Tongass, the Orion North sale on 380 acres near Misty Fiords National Monument. Environmentalists have sued to block that project. A couple of other Tongass timber sales located in roadless areas -- called Kuiu and Scratchings II -- are scheduled for bid this fall.

Justin DeJong, a spokesman for Vilsack, said Wednesday that "the Obama administration supports conservation of roadless areas in our national forests, and this decision today reaffirms the protection of these resources."

Obama needs to follow up by eliminating the roadless rule exemption for the Tongass, said Tom Waldo, a Juneau-based lawyer for Earthjustice, which represented a coalition of environmental groups in the case.

The Obama administration has not said whether it will defend the Clinton rule in the Wyoming court battle, but environmentalists say the administration should weigh in.

They hailed the 9th Circuit ruling, calling it the end of the Bush-era rule on roadless forests.

"This is a huge step. It puts the roadless rule back in place," said Kristen Boyles, a lawyer for the environmental group Earthjustice.

In its 38-page decision, the appeals court said the 2001 rule offered greater protection to remote forests than the 2005 rule, saying that it has "immeasurable benefits from a conservationist standpoint."

Daily News reporter Elizabeth Bluemink contributed to this story.

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