A report released by the Center for Biological Diversity, WildWest Institute, and 50 other environmental organizations charges that Idaho’s proposed roadless plan would allow 8,000 more acres (in addition to 10,000 acres already leased) for phosphate mining in the state’s roadless areas.
“If this proposal moves forward, mining companies will be permitted to turn some of Idaho’s most pristine landscapes into Superfund sites that would continue to contaminate waterways for generations,” states the report, entitled “Wild at Heart: Saving the Last of America’s Roadless Backcountry.”
The report also says a Bush administration plan to give Idaho more control of its 9.3 million acres of roadless areas could set a precedent for increased mining, logging, coal, oil, and gas exploration, and road building in roadless areas of other states.
According to the U.S. Forest Service, one-third – or 3.2 million acres ?Çô of Idaho’s protected acres would be managed in a manner that retains “natural processes and roadless characteristics” under the proposed rule, the report states. The remaining six million acres (the size of Massachusetts) would lose existing protections, the environmental groups said, noting Idaho’s 9.3 million roadless acres are part of the last intact forest ecosystem in the lower 48 states – the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem.
Located in eastern Idaho, western Wyoming, and northern Utah, the Caribou-Targhee National Park abuts the Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks in that ecosystem. The United Nations has designated the region as a “Biosphere Reserve,” the report says. The forest contains 50 separate roadless areas extending over 1,478,000 primitive Idaho acres.
The Bush administration plan would replace the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule imposed by the U.S. Forest Service during the Clinton administration, which prohibits new roads for logging and other commercial development in the nation’s forests. David Hensley, counsel to Idaho Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter, said the proposed plan strikes an appropriate balance between the national concerns for the roadless areas and local needs.
The “Wild at Heart” report says the Bush administration is proposing to open 251,800 acres of roadless areas in the Caribou-Targhee forest to new development and associated road construction. It also would allow 12,100 acres of new phosphate mines and related road work, resulting in up to 545 million tons of phosphate extracted and transported, it says. The J.R. Simplot Company, Agrium, and Monsanto operate phosphate mines within the forest. Opening the region to more phosphate mining would expose waterways to the threat of selenium contamination and threaten wildlife, fisheries, and recreational opportunities, the report says.
Idaho’s petition is the first state petition to relax roadless restrictions under the Bush plan. In January, the federal government announced the release of a draft rule based on Idaho’s petition submitted to the Forest Service in the fall of 2006 by then-Gov. Jim Risch, which also has been endorsed by Otter, his successor.