Governor seeks to restore "roadless-rule" protections

Gov. Christine Gregoire has formally asked the U.S. Department of Agriculture to revive protections for roadless national-forest land in Washington that were scrapped by the Bush administration earlier this year.

Gregoire's request Wednesday is her first clear indication of how she wants to treat 2 million acres of federal land in Washington that have been untouched by roads.

It allies her with environmental groups that embraced the sweeping Clinton-era "roadless rule" barring road building for logging, mining and other work on 58 million acres in national forests nationwide.

"Washingtonians overwhelmingly want these lands protected, and I intend to do everything within the state's power to see that they are," Gregoire said.

But the request also is likely to set up a confrontation with the U.S. Forest Service.

A similar request last week by Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongoski was swiftly rejected by Agriculture Undersecretary Mark Rey. Elliot Marks, an environmental adviser to Gregoire, predicted the same fate for her request.

Gregoire and several other governors have complained that the Bush administration's new process for roadless protection is unnecessarily burdensome. Oregon, California and New Mexico sued the federal government this summer to overturn the rules.

Under those rules, each national forest establishes its own roadless protections, which had been the policy before the Clinton roadless policy. By shifting back to the pre-Clinton policy, protection was removed from roughly 700,000 acres in Washington.

Individual states can petition to have more land protected, but they must submit an analysis arguing the case.

Instead of submitting such an analysis, Gregoire's request Wednesday asked the Forest Service to change its rules to allow states to simply adopt the earlier roadless rules.

If, as expected, the Forest Service rejects Gregoire's proposal, the state could join the lawsuit challenging the new roadless rules. Or it could file a separate lawsuit or submit an analysis as required by the current rules, Marks said.

Warren Cornwall: 206-464-2311 or wcornwall@seattletimes.com