The Minnesota Forest Resources Council voted Wednesday that Gov. Tim Pawlenty not take any action on roadless areas in the state's two national forests.
Pawlenty had asked the council, a state board charged with plotting forestry and timber harvest policy, to give him direction on the issue.
This year the Bush administration drafted a rule leaving it up to governors in each state to petition the Forest Service to include more official roadless areas in national forests.
The issue looms large in western states, where millions of acres potentially could be designated roadless.
In Minnesota, the issue boils down to about 62,000 acres in the Superior National Forest that are eligible for federal roadless protection. Other acres are crisscrossed with logging roads or already are protected, such as the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness.
Other Northland national forests, the Chippewa in Minnesota and Chequamegon/Nicolet in Wisconsin, have little land eligible for roadless designation.
The Bush administration this year dismantled a 2001 Clinton-administration plan that declared about 62,000 acres in the Superior National Forest and 58.5 million acres nationally as officially roadless, essentially closed to logging, mining, grazing and oil exploration.
Instead, the Bush plan allows governors to decide whether to nominate land as roadless, starting a lengthy and apparently expensive public review process shared by the state and federal governments. In the end, however, even after state input, the federal government has the final decision on designating any national forest land as roadless.
Environmentalists have pressed for years to include the additional Superior forest acres as officially roadless. Most of the acres are near the BWCAW. But even environmental groups said the new federal rule made it a waste of time and money for the state to petition Washington. Instead, they are seeking a new federal law to protect all the roadless areas.
Environmental groups joined timber industry representatives and local officials in opposing any petition by Pawlenty, said Jan Green, a Forest Resources Council member from Duluth.
"No one wanted it, so we recommended the governor not do it. It was pretty simple," Green said.
The council's resolution did include a provision suggesting Pawlenty petition the U.S. Forest Service to listen to some Cook County residents who want roads that lead to the Vegetable chain of lakes reopened. The new Superior Forest management plan designated the area as semiprimitive and roadless, and off-limits to vehicles. But some anglers want to use ATVs and trucks to access the otherwise remote fishing lakes.
The governor is not obliged to heed the council's recommendation. And, even if he acts, the federal government is not obliged to follow the governor's wishes.Duluth News Tribune
