Dead End For Road Building In National Forests

"Decisions to build new roads in pristine forests should be made only after careful study and deliberation. That was the policy adopted in the Clinton administration, which, after three years of study and public input, in 2001 banned road-building in 58 million acres of forest. But the Bush administration, in a decision marked by neither study nor deliberation, suspended the so-called roadless rule later that year....Just as President Clinton had the power to institute the roadless policy, President Bush has the authority to change it â€" even to change it for the worse. But he does not have the right to change it without the analysis required by federal law."