U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill on Jan. 28 rejected a lawsuit filed by a coalition of regional and national environmental groups and upheld the Idaho Roadless Rule, which manages the use and protection of about 9.3 million acres of federal public wilderness in the state and allows mining development in Southeast Idaho’s rich phosphate region.
Idaho Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter and U.S. Sen. Jim Risch hailed the ruling, which may be appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit by Earthjustice, the Wilderness Society, the Greater Yellowstone Coalition, Sierra Club, the Natural Resources Defense Council, and the Lands Council. The groups filed suit in 2009 to reverse the U.S. Forest Service’s approval of the 2008 roadless rule.
Winmill ruled in Boise that the Forest Service did not violate the Endangered Species Act or the National Environmental Policy Act when it decided in favor of Idaho’s Roadless Rule, the first of its kind in the nation, contradicting environmentalists who said it exposes too much land to mining, logging, or other activities they contend are harmful to habitat.
Tim Preso, an attorney for Earthjustice in Bozeman, Mont., said he was disappointed by Winmill’s decision. The Idaho Conservation League, Trout Unlimited, and the Kootenai tribe of northern Idaho supported Idaho’s Roadless Rule. The Obama administration, the state of Idaho, counties, and the Idaho Mining Association also intervened to defend the rule.
Idaho’s acreage is the second largest roadless expanse in the United States, behind only Alaska. Idaho was the only state exempted from U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack’s May 28, 2009, announcement that for at least one year no new roads would be allowed in 49 million acres of national forest without his approval. The Obama administration, however, let the state’s rules for roadless areas stand.
Colorado is the only other state to have its own roadless regulations. Idaho, however, has the largest, most diverse collection of roadless property in the contiguous 48 states. In January 2001 the Clinton administration imposed the federal Roadless Area Conservation Rule, which banned development, logging, and road building on more than 58 million acres of the nation’s 192 million acres of remote national forest land, primarily in the West.
The Bush administration repealed the Clinton rule four years later and gave states the authority to develop their own plans and petition the federal government for approval.
The Idaho rule clears the way for companies to mine and develop phosphate under Forest Service rules on 5,000 acres in Southeast Idaho, which is also home to grizzly bear habitat. It divides acreage into several categories, designating about 3.4 million acres as primitive or wild land recreation, areas off limits to roads, and development. It also sets aside 5.3 million acres as backcountry restoration, a category that allows temporary roads and logging to reduce the threat of wildfire.
Winmill said the Forest Service and other federal agencies still had the authority to have final say on mining projects, although environmentalists argued the Idaho rule restricts the ability of federal officials to objectively study or reject future mining on those lands. There is no “mandatory requirement in the Idaho Roadless Rule that would prevent the Forest Service from rejecting a site-specific road proposal in this area,” Winmill wrote.
Risch, who was Idaho’s governor when the Idaho Roadless Rule was hammered out, said that Winmill’s ruling “is a credit to all the Idahoans who put a great deal of time and effort into crafting the various protections for Idaho lands.”
Following 16 public meetings and comments from thousands of Idahoans and based on local and statewide input, Risch helped create five management themes for Idaho’s 9.3 million roadless acres, including wild land recreation, primitive, back country, and general forest. A special areas category would preserve important tribal and historical sites.
The Idaho plan was unanimously approved by the national Roadless Area Conservation National Advisory Committee in December 2006, and recommended for adoption to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
“This is a victory for the collaborative process. This ruling shows that the collaborative process is viable in resolving federal public land disputes at the state level. Idaho has the only roadless rule in the nation developed by a state based on input from the full spectrum of wildland users,” Risch said.
“Rather than a one-size-fits-all plan that changes with each new administration, we have a plan that will manage these areas not only for forest health, but for people to hunt, fish, hike, and for motorized users on appropriate parcels. This is a common sense approach that benefits the land and all Idahoans.”
Otter stated: “I believe this decision closes the chapter on a 40-year controversy and validates a new model for resolving natural resource issues across the West.”
Risch was in attendance in a federal courtroom in Boise when oral arguments were presented Oct. 15 to Winmill. “Senator Risch was willing to testify, but was not asked to,” said Jeremy Field, Risch’s regional director in Pocatello