"The Trump administration has said it will rescind Clinton's roadless rule, more than two decades after its introduction appeared to mark the end of the bitter battle between environmentalists and loggers over the future of America's best remaining woodland. The rule is overly restrictive and an absurd obstacle to development, according to Brooke Rollins, Trump's secretary of agriculture, as she outlined its demise in June."
"following a Trump emergency order to swiftly fell trees across the US's network of national forests, spanning 280 million acres. The president has slapped tariffs on lumber imports, and the recent Republican spending bill requires more wood to come from American forests a 78% increase in the amount of timber sold from national forests in the next nine years, an escalation that could trigger a frenzy of new cutting."
In 1999 Bill Clinton established the roadless rule to ban roads, drilling and other disturbances across roughly 58 million acres of near-pristine national forest. The Trump administration plans to rescind that rule and pursued an unusually short 21-day public comment period before ending it. A Trump emergency order and tariffs on lumber, plus a Republican spending bill mandating a 78% increase in timber sales from national forests over nine years, create pressure for expanded cutting. Advocates warn that opening roadless areas to logging would harm ecosystems and the streams and rivers that supply clean drinking water.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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