SAN FRANCISCO — Oregon, California and New Mexico sued the Bush administration yesterday over the government's decision to allow road building, logging and other commercial ventures on more than 90,000 square miles of the nation's remaining pristine forests.

In the lawsuit, attorneys general for the three states challenged the U.S. Forest Service's repeal of the Clinton administration's "roadless rule" that banned development on 58.5 million acres of national forest land, mostly in Western states.

"The Bush administration is putting at risk some of the last, most pristine portions of America's national forests," California Attorney General Bill Lockyer said.

In Washington state, about 2 million acres of land scattered throughout the state have been covered by the rule.

Elliot Marks, a natural-resources-policy adviser to Gov. Christine Gregoire, said Washington did not join the suit because officials learned of it too late to review it. But he said Gregoire supports restoration of the roadless rule.

Gregoire said last month she would work to protect most, if not all, of roadless areas protected by the Clinton rule.

In January 2001, eight days before he left office, Clinton put nearly one-third of the nation's 192 million acres of national forest land off-limits to road construction, winning praise from conservation groups and criticism from the timber industry.

But in May, the Bush administration replaced the regulation with a new policy requiring states to work with the Forest Service to decide how to manage individual forests. Governors were given 18 months either to petition the agency to keep their states' forests protected or to open the undeveloped areas to roads and development.

Mark Rey, the Agriculture Department's undersecretary for natural resources and environment, called yesterday's lawsuit "unfortunate and unnecessary."

"The quickest way to provide permanent protection is through the development of state-specific rules, not by resuscitating the 2001 rule," Rey said.

In the lawsuit, filed in federal court in San Francisco, the states allege that the Bush administration's repeal of the roadless rule violated federal law because the government didn't conduct a complete analysis of the new regulation's environmental impact.

Environmentalists praised the suit, saying remote roadless forests contain some of the country's best drinking water, wildlife habitat and recreational areas. But Chris West, vice president of the American Forest Resource Council, said the lawsuit was politically motivated, pointing out that the three attorneys general were Democrats.

Seattle Times staff contributed.