After 10 years of squabbling, the “roadless rule” is back in force. From today’s Missoulian . . .
A decade of uncertainty over managing public roadless lands may have cleared with last Friday’s federal appeals court ruling.
A three-judge panel from the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously agreed that a 2001 rule governing inventoried roadless areas was the law of the land. That dovetailed with earlier 9th Circuit Court rulings saying the same thing.
The decisions prohibit road construction and timber cutting in 58.5 million acres of inventoried roadless areas, including 6.4 million acres in Montana. That covers about 30 percent of the national forest system.