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- Subscribe - Contact Us - Rate Card - Place an Ad Valley&State Backpage O&E Sports Archives Classifieds Faith&Beliefs Obituaries Revels Jul7 17, 2004 Our View Roadless changes bad politics, plain and simple The Bush administration proposal to give states management of some 60 million acres of roadless federal forest land should be seen as what it is: An election-year maneuver to court favor with rural parts of the West. The justification that it will reduce court challenges resulting from President Clinton's 2001 protection of these lands is laughable. The proposal is a pure departure from why those lands were designated "federal" in the first place. The 1897 Forest Management Act, which established "forest reserves," was intended to protect this resource for the nation, not only as a timber resource, but to "prevent destruction of the forest cover which regulates the flow of streams." This proposal would change that. Instead of simply saying some land is more valuable intact, undisturbed, it would require governors to recommend a reprieve from road construction into every tractless parcel proposed for development. That won't really happen, Dean Hal Salwasser at Oregon State University's college of forestry, said in Wednesday's edition. He doesn't think that the proposal, if adopted after public comment, would change much in Oregon's roadless federal lands. Salwasser said that it's economics as well as environmental reasons that have kept logging crews out of these roadless forests up to now. But market demand has a way of changing, and that can remove barriers to road-building once the legal roadblocks are removed. Salwasser's assertion that he couldn't imagine a governor "wanting to bear the political heat of getting into the business of forestry management" is cold comfort for those counting on a reprieve from the governor to keep these areas roadless. Although Gov. Ted Kulongoski has said he opposes this measure, the proposal itself illustrates how shifting political winds can erode land conservation provisions. It may be true that Oregon would not see a wholesale pilgrimage to build roads into remote national forests, but the proposal paves the way. As the prophecy from the movie "Field of Dreams" noted, "If you build it; they will come." Then, they'll just keep on coming. - The (Corvallis) Gazette-Times DailyTidings.com Home Page Valley&State | Backpage | O&E | Sports | Archives | Weather | Classifieds Columnists | Faith&Beliefs | Obituaries | Revels | Subscribe | Contact Us Copyright 2004 Ashland Daily Tidings and Ottaway Newspapers All Rights Reserved Click Here Site Search: .:Advertisements:. RESOURCES - Mail Tribune News - ODOT Road Cams