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ASPEN — Colorado officials worry about a potential loophole that could allow gas drilling in some roadless forests, but don’t plan to scrap their plan for managing 4 million acres of the backcountry.
Environmentalists, hunters and anglers have asked Gov. Bill Ritter to withdraw Colorado’s plan for managing national forest land declared off-limits to roads and development during the Clinton administration. They say the state plan is weaker than the Clinton-era rule, which was reinstated in 2006 by a San Francisco court after a federal judge in Wyoming overturned it.
The same judge threw out the rule again. Environmental groups are appealing U.S. District Judge Clarence Brimmer’s latest decision, issued in August.
Ritter has called Colorado’s plan an insurance policy amid all the legal uncertainty over the roadless rule passed in 2001 toward the end of the Clinton administration. The governor supports tightening some gaps, but still backs the plan written by a state task force, said Evan Dreyer, Ritter’s spokesman.
Colorado is working with the U.S. Forest Service on rules to put the proposal in place. Ritter planned to make suggestions to a federal advisory group during a meeting Thursday in Salt Lake City. The panel will make recommendations to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which oversees the Forest Service.
Mike King, deputy director of the Colorado Department of Natural Resources, said the state is studying what it can do to close a potential loophole that could allow natural gas development on about 57,000 acres of roadless areas.
“That’s the one that keeps me up at night,” King told the Aspen Daily News last week.
At issue are gas leases approved in roadless forests after the Clinton-era road-building ban was thrown out by the courts and before the rule was reinstated.
After the federal judge in Wyoming overturned the roadless rule in 2003, the Bush administration approved a policy that opened some of the land to potential development but allowed states to petition the federal government to protect areas.
The Clinton administration had banned new roads and other activities on about 58 million acres of the 192 million acres of forests nationwide. The land, some of which has trails or roads, is generally remote and considered important for wildlife habitat, watersheds, scenic and recreation areas.
The Colorado Legislature and former Gov. Bill Owens appointed a task force to write a roadless management plan and submit a petition.
But conservation groups and some states, including California and New Mexico, challenged the Bush policy. In 2006, U.S. District Judge Elizabeth Laporte of San Francisco tossed out the Bush administration’s rule, saying the necessary environmental reviews hadn’t been done.
Colorado conservation, hunting and angling groups that supported Ritter during the 2006 gubernatorial campaign then asked him to shelve the Colorado petition and apply the Clinton-era policy, which applies to states that don’t have their own rules. Ritter has resisted because of all the legal wrangling.
Environmentalists, hunters and anglers have asked Gov. Bill Ritter to withdraw Colorado’s plan for managing national forest land declared off-limits to roads and development during the Clinton administration. They say the state plan is weaker than the Clinton-era rule, which was reinstated in 2006 by a San Francisco court after a federal judge in Wyoming overturned it.
The same judge threw out the rule again. Environmental groups are appealing U.S. District Judge Clarence Brimmer’s latest decision, issued in August.
Ritter has called Colorado’s plan an insurance policy amid all the legal uncertainty over the roadless rule passed in 2001 toward the end of the Clinton administration. The governor supports tightening some gaps, but still backs the plan written by a state task force, said Evan Dreyer, Ritter’s spokesman.
Colorado is working with the U.S. Forest Service on rules to put the proposal in place. Ritter planned to make suggestions to a federal advisory group during a meeting Thursday in Salt Lake City. The panel will make recommendations to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which oversees the Forest Service.
Mike King, deputy director of the Colorado Department of Natural Resources, said the state is studying what it can do to close a potential loophole that could allow natural gas development on about 57,000 acres of roadless areas.
“That’s the one that keeps me up at night,” King told the Aspen Daily News last week.
At issue are gas leases approved in roadless forests after the Clinton-era road-building ban was thrown out by the courts and before the rule was reinstated.
After the federal judge in Wyoming overturned the roadless rule in 2003, the Bush administration approved a policy that opened some of the land to potential development but allowed states to petition the federal government to protect areas.
The Clinton administration had banned new roads and other activities on about 58 million acres of the 192 million acres of forests nationwide. The land, some of which has trails or roads, is generally remote and considered important for wildlife habitat, watersheds, scenic and recreation areas.
The Colorado Legislature and former Gov. Bill Owens appointed a task force to write a roadless management plan and submit a petition.
But conservation groups and some states, including California and New Mexico, challenged the Bush policy. In 2006, U.S. District Judge Elizabeth Laporte of San Francisco tossed out the Bush administration’s rule, saying the necessary environmental reviews hadn’t been done.
Colorado conservation, hunting and angling groups that supported Ritter during the 2006 gubernatorial campaign then asked him to shelve the Colorado petition and apply the Clinton-era policy, which applies to states that don’t have their own rules. Ritter has resisted because of all the legal wrangling.
