Plan would limit roads in forests statewide

The U.S. Forest Service would restrict roadbuilding on 674,000 acres in the Pike and San Isabel national forests, including 27,400 acres on Pikes Peak, under a statewide plan to manage 4 million acres of roadless area.

But the proposal, announced July 25, has been widely criticized by conservationists and hunting and fishing groups who say the Colorado Roadless Rule actually opens up pristine areas to oil and gas development and weakens protections already in place.

The plan will be the subject of public meetings this month, including one in Pueblo on Aug. 18 and one in Golden on Aug. 21.

In 2001, President Bill Clinton banned development on areas identified as roadless - 31 percent of national forest land in Colorado. A federal court blocked a Bush administration effort to overturn the ban.

In November 2006, Republican Gov. Bill Owens asked the U.S. Department of Agriculture to draft rules specifically for Colorado, and Democratic Gov. Bill Ritter resubmitted the request, with a few changes, in April 2007.

Ritter wrote in a letter to the USDA that he was concerned that future court rulings could strike down the Clinton ban, and that he wanted an "insurance policy for protection of our roadless areas."

What he has done, critics say, is make Colorado's wild areas more open to roadbuilding than those in other states, because only Colorado and Idaho have pursued their own roadless plans.

"The issue is, why would we weaken protections for Colorado's forests that they currently enjoy?" said Matt Garrington, field director for the group Environment Colorado.

The proposed roadless acreage is 300,000 acres smaller than that identified in 2001, but of greater concern to conservationists are the exceptions, which would allow roads to be built in roadless areas for mining and energy leases, tree thinning, livestock grazing, water and utility projects and by ski resorts.

"Basically, what we have is some special interests trying to upend the status quo so they can get more benefits, at the expense of everyone else," said David Lien of Colorado Springs, Front Range director for the group Backcountry Hunters and Anglers.

The group is one of many that has asked Ritter to withdraw the state plan and return Colorado to the protections of the 2001 roadless rule, because of the impact new roads in undeveloped areas would have on wildlife, the environment and recreation.

"The roadless areas really are a key to maintaining viable wildlife populations of all kinds, whether it be fish or fowl or game animals or nongame animals," said John Stansfield of Monument, coordinator of the Central Colorado Wilderness Coalition.

"They're a key to what in some places is becoming a rapidly diminishing resource, which is a quiet recreation resource."

Ritter was supported in the 2006 election by conservationists and has won their praise for his efforts to stop drilling on the Roan Plateau and to enact tougher environmental regulations for oil and gas drilling. He is still reviewing the Forest Service proposal, and has concerns that the acreage has been reduced since 2001, said Ritter spokesman Evan Dreyer.

"For us, the concerning point was, ‘Are there tens of thousands of acres that we had believed had been protected and now that won't?' and that's a legitimate question for the Forest Service," Dreyer said.

In the Pikes Peak region, the largest roadless areas would be on the peak itself, 13,300 acres on the east and south, 14,100 on the south and southwest, bisected by the Pikes Peak Highway.

Neither highway managers nor officials at Colorado Springs Utilities, which has 10 reservoirs on the peak, had concerns about the roadless designation.

The proposal allows roads to be built for construction and maintenance of existing and future water and utility projects, a change from the 2001 rule, which limits roads to already-permitted projects.

The other major roadless area in the region would be on Rampart Range, in the foothills northwest of Palmer Lake, where 46,000 acres are proposed for roadless status. There are a total of 674,000 acres in the Pike and San Isabel national forests proposed for roadless status, 5,000 more than were put forward in 2001.

Forest Service spokesman Terry McCann declined to discuss the concerns raised by conservation groups.

"We're aware of some of the questions and are very interested in getting the input and concerns," McCann said. "It's just not appropriate for us to try to argue point-counterpoint. We're going to take all the information and come up with the best rule possible."
The meetings will have an "open house" format, Mc-Cann said. People can ask questions and submit comments in writing.

The agency rescheduled the final three meetings, originally set for Aug. 26-28 on the Western Slope, because they had been set for the week of the Democratic National Convention in Denver. They will now be Sept. 9-11.

CONTACT THE WRITER: 476-1605 or srappold@gazette.com

ROADLESS RULE PUBLIC MEETINGS

- Aug. 18, 5 to 8:30 p.m., Colorado State University - Pueblo, 2200 Bonforte Blvd.
- Aug. 21, 5-8:30 p.m., at the Marriott Denver West, 1717 Denver West Blvd., in Golden.

The public is invited to get information on the proposed roadless rule and submit written comments.

Comments may also be submitted through Oct. 23 at COComments@fsroadless.org. Visit http://roadless.fs.fed.us/colorado.shtml for more information, to get the dates and locations of other meetings around the state or to view the proposal.