Last week in this column, we looked at the Roadless Area Conservation Rule, commonly called the roadless rule — we’ll call it the national rule for the purpose of today’s column. As mentioned last week, Colorado has a different roadless rule — the Colorado rule) — which seems likely to survive the Trump administration’s efforts to rescind the national rule. This article discusses the Colorado rule and how it differs from the national rule. 

As discussed last week, the national rule generally prohibits logging and road building in the nation’s 98.5 million acres of inventoried roadless areas, 4.2 million of which are in Colorado. The national rule applies the same restrictions and exemptions to all 98.5 million acres. However, the national rule contained a provision that allowed the governor of any state to petition the Secretary of Agriculture within a five-year window to adopt roadless rules that were different from the national rule to address unique circumstance within their particular state.

Colorado and Idaho were the only two states to file such petitions. Colorado’s petition was filed in 2006.  The state sought to have two tiers of roadless area regulation rather than only one. The upper tier included 1.2 million acres of its finest roadless areas. Lands in the upper tier would be given even greater protection from logging and road construction by removing some of the exceptions to these prohibitions in the national rule. The remaining four million acres would be subject to some new exceptions to national rule’s general prohibition of logging and road building.

Colorado negotiated the terms of the Colorado rule with the federal government for seven years. The Colorado rule was finally adopted by the federal government in 2012. It differs from the national rule in several important ways:  

• Tiered protection: As noted above, Colorado roadless areas were divided into two tiers, an upper tier of 1.2 million acres and four million acres of non-upper tier roadless areas. 
• Logging: With respect to upper tier lands, the Colorado rule strengthened their protection by removing some of the exceptions in the National Rule to its general prohibition of logging and road building. On the other hand, the Colorado rule added some exceptions to that prohibition related to fire mitigation work and related road building within 1 1/2 miles of at-risk communities.  
• Ski areas: The Colorado rule specifically excludes 8,300 acres of previously designated roadless area to allow for potential expansion of Colorado ski areas.
• Coal mining: The Colorado rule allows the construction of temporary roads for coal exploration in the North Fork Coal Mining Area (19,700 acres) in southwest Colorado near Paonia and Somerset. 
• Updated inventory: The Colorado rule updated the inventory of roadless areas to remove 459,000 acres in Colorado that had already been substantially altered but added 409,500 other acres of high-quality roadless land.
• Utility lines: The Colorado rule allows temporary roads to be constructed for various utility lines, ditches, and pipelines.

Colorado was motivated to negotiate the Colorado rule, in part, by the fear that future federal administrations might rescind or weaken the national rule. Indeed, the Trump administration is currently seeking to rescind the national rule, but not the Colorado or Idaho rules.

Environmental groups had mixed feelings about the Colorado rule. The greater protections afforded upper tier lands were welcomed, but the additional exceptions to the national rule’s prohibition on logging and road building on the remainder of Colorado roadless areas were concerning. However, the most important aspect of the Colorado rule may be that it has made Colorado safe (for now) from efforts to rescind the national rule.   

Mike Browning is a board member for Eagle Summit Wilderness Alliance and committee chair for the volunteer wilderness rangers and advocacy committees