Asm. Lloyd Levine has introduced Assembly Joint Resolution
56 (AJR56) to encourage the federal government to protect California’s
roadless areas.
California
contains a total of 20,698,000 acres of national forest land. Of those public
lands, 4.4 million acres are pristine and wild, but currently unprotected. These lands are known as roadless areas. California's
national forests include more than 2,400 lakes and reservoirs, which supply
clean drinking water for its citizens and provide both irrigation water and
grazing lands for farmers; 13,000 miles of fishable rivers and streams, 1,200
miles of designated wild and scenic rivers which provide critical habitat for
wildlife; and 10,500 miles of maintained trails for hiking, horseback riding and
off-road vehicle use.
“Protecting
our roadless areas is important to our environment and our economy,” said Dan
Jacobson, legislative director for Environment California.
Over
the years, approximately 4.2 million comments have been submitted from around
the county, with over 92 percent in support of protecting our last remaining roadless
areas. During the development of the original 2001 Roadless Rule, the U.S. Forest
Service received 187,695 comments from residents of California,
with over 95 percent supporting the complete protection of all roadless areas
in the Golden State.
Since then, approximately another
235,000 comments have been sent in by Californians – the vast majority of those
continue to be in support of protection these natural treasures.
In
May 2005, the Bush administration repealed the enormously popular 2001 Roadless
Area Conservation Rule in its entirety, purporting to replace it with a
voluntary state petition process. As a result, millions of acres of the
nation's last wild forests have no federal protections and are now at risk. The
administration's reversal of the 2001 rule opened up one-third of America's
national forest land to the possibility of road construction, commercial
logging, oil and gas drilling, mining exploration and other forms of development.
Governors are now forced to submit petitions if they wish to see roadless areas
in their states protected.
On July 12, Gov. Schwarzenegger petitioned the federal
government to protect 100 percent of California’s
inventoried roadless areas. The governor's petition requests that the U.S.
Forest Service work with the state to develop a federal rule to protect California's
most important sources of clean drinking water, wildlife habitat, recreation
areas, and wildlands.
California’s petition
has now been submitted to the Roadless Area Conservation National Advisory
Committee (RACNAC) for consideration. The committee will review the petition and
make its recommendations to the secretary of agriculture. The secretary will then
decide whether or not to initiate a federal rulemaking process that will
eventually result in a final rule for the state of California.
In the end, protections are not guaranteed and the administration may enact,
modify, or reject the petition entirely.
As California’s
petition moves through this process, it is important that the Legislature
demonstrate its continued support to protect all of the state’s roadless areas.
