National Forest System Land and Resource Management Planning; Special Areas; Roadless Area Conservation

On July 10, 2001, the Forest Service published an advance notice of proposed rulemaking (ANPR) seeking public comment concerning how best to proceed with long-term protection and management of inventoried roadless areas. The 2001 ANPR expressed the Department’s belief that inventoried roadless areas contain important environmental values that warrant protection, and identified a set of principles that would guide the Department in addressing this subject. This second ANPR solicits further public input concerning the applicability of the roadless area conservation rule to both the Tongass and the Chugach National Forests in Alaska. In conjunction with this second ANPR, a proposed rule has been published elsewhere in the same part of today’s Federal Register that would amend the roadless area conservation rule’s application to the Tongass National Forest. The agency is publishing the proposed rule and this ANPR in order to fulfill part of the Department’s obligations under the June 10, 2003 settlement agreement for State of Alaska v. USDA, while also maintaining the ecological values of inventoried roadless areas in the Tongass and Chugach National Forests. In State of Alaska v. USDA, the State of Alaska and other plaintiffs alleged that the roadless rule violated a number of federal statutes, including the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act of 1980 (ANILCA). Passed overwhelmingly by Congress in 1980, ANILCA sets aside millions of acres in Alaska for the National Park Service, Forest Service, National Monuments, National Wildlife Refuges, and Wilderness Areas with the understanding that sufficient protection and balance would be ensured between protected areas and multiple-use managed areas, and that there would be no more administrative land withdrawals. The Alaska lawsuit alleged that USDA violated ANILCA by applying the requirements of the roadless rule to Alaska’s national forests. USDA settled the lawsuit by agreeing to publish the proposed rule (located elsewhere in the same part of today’s Federal Register) to temporarily exempt the Tongass from the application of the roadless rule, and to publish this separate ANPR requesting comment on whether to exempt permanently the Tongass and the Chugach National Forests in Alaska from the application of the roadless rule. Under the settlement, the vast majority of Alaska National Forests will remain off limits to development. Timber harvest will be prohibited on more than 95 percent of Alaska National Forests as required under existing forest plans. Exempting the Tongass National Forest from the application of the roadless rule would make approximately 300,000 roadless acres available for—forest management— slightly more than 3 percent of the 9.3 million roadless acres in the Tongass, or 0.5 percent of the total roadless acres nationwide. Exempting the Chugach National Forest, from the application of the roadless rule would permit roaded access on approximately 150,000 acres—less than 3 percent of the forest’s 5.4 million roadless acres, or 0.3 percent of the total roadless acres nationwide. The proposals under the settlement would preserve all old-growth reserves, riparian buffers, beach fringe buffers, roadless areas, and other protections contained in the forest plans. The roadless rule would also continue to apply to the 43.7 million roadless acres in national forests outside of Alaska. Public comment is invited and will be considered in the development of the proposed rule.