Audio Forest rule impact in Minnesota still unclear (story audio) Photos Superior National Forest More from MPR Bush administration plan opens more national forests to logging (07/12/2004) Resources Superior National Forest Minnesota Forest Industries Friends of the BWCA Your Voice Join the conversation with other MPR listeners in the News Forum.

	E-mail this page			Print this page

Forest rule impact in Minnesota still unclear
by Bob Kelleher, Minnesota Public Radio
July 12, 2004

About 62,000 acres in the Superior National Forest in northern Minnesota are currently under protection from new roadbuilding. That could change under a proposal from President Bush. (MPR file photo)

The U.S. Forest Service has announced a new direction for managing forest areas without roads. Under the new plan, it'll be easier to build logging roads unless there's a request from a state's governor to keep the regions road- free. Forest Service officials in Duluth don't yet know how the new directive will play out in Minnesota. The rule change gets a vote of support from the state's timber producers. But it's thumbs down from the state's environmental groups.

Duluth, Minn. — Keeping areas within national forests road-free stops logging and mining, and limits other possible uses. The Clinton administration's roadless initiative effectively banned new roads from about 62,000 acres in Minnesota's Superior National Forest. In the Chippewa National Forest, 77 acres -- the surface acreage of three islands -- is protected.

Minnesota's forest industry has not been happy with the Clinton-era restrictions. Tim O'Hara of Minnesota Forest Industries in Duluth says the criteria for the Clinton plan were arbitrary, and tried to squeeze widely differing situations under a single rule.

"The proposed rule for 2004 ... would allow for some more local inputs to the states, and local inputs to address roadless areas on the state level, rather than saying all roadless areas are the same -- no matter what state they are in," says O'Hara.

Under the new proposal, the presumption is there can be new roads unless there's a request from a state's governor for a ban.

(In the) Boundary Waters Canoe Area, that's a million acres of forest land already. ... Do we need more to be taken out of multiple use and put into a wilderness-type state? - Tim O'Hara, Minnesota Forest Industries

A governor can also petition to allow logging or other treatment, where there are problems with insect infestation or there's a high risk of wildfire. O'Hara says that provision would affect mostly Western states, where drought and insects have killed millions of trees.

"Of 58 million acres or so of proposed roadless areas, about 40 percent, or 23 million acres of that, have moderate to high risk of catastrophic fire," says O'Hara.

While there's little need for emergency forest management in the Superior National Forest's roadless areas, the roadless issue was still an irritant to Minnesota loggers. It represented another major timber set-aside in the Superior National Forest.

"(In the) Boundary Waters Canoe Area, that's a million acres of forest land already," O'Hara says. "The question is, do we need more to be taken out of multiple use and put into a wilderness-type state?"

Minnesota's environmental groups see the new rule as a sellout by the Bush administration. Sean Werley, with the group Friends of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, says it's a dangerous precedent.

"It puts the control of national forests in the hands of state governors," says Werley. "The overwhelming public support for public protection should be a signal to the Bush administration to go ahead and protect these areas. But instead, the Bush administration is passing the buck to governors."

In Minnesota's Superior National Forest, Werley says, the roadless areas are particularly important or sensitive.

"A lot of these areas were inventoried by the U.S. Forest Service in the 1970s. And they were targeted as areas for protection because of their unique characteristics," says Werley. "Most had not been logged, or were near rivers or other water bodies that made them deserving of special protection."

Werley says the undeveloped areas are popular for fishing, hiking, canoeing and birdwatching. He says the Friends group has already sent a message to Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, asking Pawlenty to request roadless protection.

News Headlines

Related Subjects