US News
Judge blocks Bush plan to log national forests
By DPA
Sep 21, 2006, 19:00 GMT

San Francisco - A federal judge has blocked a Bush administration policy giving local governors authority over logging in US National Forests, the San Francisco Chronicle reported Thursday.

US District Judge Elizabeth Laporte, in a decision released late Wednesday, said that the government's approach ignored both the National Environmental Policy Act and the US Endangered Species Act in formulating its plan for roadless areas on federal public lands.

The ruling reinstitutes the Clinton-era 'roadless rule' that bans the construction of new roads on some 200,000 square kilometres of national forest which were in danger of being opened to the logging and mining industries.

Allowing state governors authority over deciding what lands to open to commercial interests failed 'to recognize the cumulative national significance of individual local decisions,' LaPorte said.

She also found that the Forest Service had failed to consult federal agencies responsible for protecting endangered species.