Colorado’s Governor Bill Ritter’s administration has submitted a revised plan for managing more than four million acres of remote, roadless forests in Colorado. State officials claim the plan will provide better protection for roadless forest lands than a 2001 Clinton-era policy supported by many environmentalists.
The document makes changes to a proposal drafted by a bipartisan panel created by the governor and Legislature in 2006.
Colorado’s plan, according to a report by the Associated Press, adds 400,000 acres that were missed under the 2001 plan and allows some activity on up to 30,000 acres of the 4.2 million acres in Colorado’s roadless inventory. Ski areas could expand within 14 ski permit boundaries and three existing coal mines would also be able to drill vents to expand.
Tracts of roadless forests nationwide were declared off-limits to new roads and development by the Clinton administration in 2001. Some of the areas were opened to potential development under the Bush administration in 2005.
Colorado pursued its own plan because the conflicting federal roadless policies were challenged in court.
The Obama administration has said it will defend the 2001 rule and in May reinstated most of the policy. It also ordered a one-year moratorium on development of the roadless areas, while the court cases are pending.
