From the Duluth News Tribune, by John Meyers
Gov. Tim Pawlenty has asked the Minnesota Forest Advisory Council to recommend how much roadless area to add to the state's national forests.
His request stems from an unprecedented Bush administration directive that allows governors to decide if national forests in their state should designate officially protected roadless areas.
Pawlenty directed the council in a June 15 letter to review the issue and report back by year's end.
The council -- composed of timber industry, academic, professional and conservation experts and appointed by the governor to chart state forest policy -- will debate the issue next week but won't make a formal recommendation until September or November, members said Thursday.
There appears to be little support for Pawlenty to pursue the federal option,however, even among environmentalists who want to see the land protected.
"I think it will be clear to the staff next week that there's really no support for the governor to do anything on this," said Jan Green, a member of the Forest Resources Council representing conservation groups. "There's support in Minnesota to see this land managed as wilderness, to keep it roadless. But this process won't work... And I'm not going to go off on a crusade for something I already know the outcome to."
Wayne Brandt, a council member who represents the Minnesota Forest Industries trade group, said Pawlenty correctly decided to seek the council's advice. But he believes there's no need for more roadless area.
Industry officials say adding more roadless area on top of the 1.1 million-acres Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness will restrict supply and raise the already high price that Minnesota mills pay for state trees.
"Ultimately, I think we'll tell him that there's no need for more land in Minnesota where we don't manage the forest" for timber harvest, Brandt said.
In Minnesota, the issue boils down to about 62,000 acres on the Superior National Forest that are eligible for federal roadless protection. Other acres are either already criss-crossed with logging roads or are already protected, such as the BWCAW.
Other Northland national forests -- the Chippewa in Minnesota and Chequamegon/Nicolet in Wisconsin -- have little land still eligible for roadless designation.
There are about 380,000 miles of roads on 191 million acres of national forests in the U.S., but some areas, especially in western states, still hold vast tracts of unroaded wilderness.
The Bush administration's plan this year dismantled a 2001 Clinton administration plan that declared about62,000 acres in the Superior National Forest, and 58.5 million acres nationally, as officially roadless and essentially closed to logging, mining, grazing and oil exploration.
Writing Bush last month, Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer said the federal government has failed to manage its own lands and that the new process may be too cumbersome.
"The Forest Service has been trying to resolve this issue for upwards of 30 years with little or no success," Schweitzer's letter read. "Now your administration, without the benefit of public hearings, has issued a final rule that asks the states to shoulder this burden both administratively and financially."
Even some environmental groups say Minnesota should simply save time and money and skip the Bush plan.
"Our goal is to see all of the roadless areas protected, and this process will never get us there. It's set up intentionally to be expensive and to fail," said Sarah Strommen, policy director for the Friends of the Boundary Waters Wilderness.
"The governor should instead pledge his support for federal legislation that's been introduced to reinstate the old roadless rule and codify it in federal law," she said, referring to the Clinton plan.
Green said supporters of keeping more northern Minnesota forest unroaded should instead focus on using ecological science within the Forest Service's timber sale program to stop new areas from being opened to logging.
"There's no appetite in Washington, or with this governor, to set aside more land as wilderness, and that's essentially what we're talking about" with roadless areas, Green said. "But you can use ecological arguments to stop the specific (road building and timber cutting) plans as they come up. That's all that there is out there right now."
