Bill put forth to keep forest lands roadless
WASHINGTON — A bill that would preserve more than half the national forest land in Nevada as roadless areas out of development’s reach was introduced Thursday in Congress.
The legislation would ensure that roads could not be build on 3.2 million acres of forest land in the state. That’s nearly 55 percent of Nevada’s 5.8 million acres of national forest.
Much of the land is within the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest that covers portions of the central and northern regions of Nevada. But about 97,000 acres are within the Spring Mountain National Recreation Area in Clark County.
Nationally, 58.5 million acres would be set aside from roadbuilding under the bill introduced in the Senate by Sens. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., and John Warner, R-Va.
A companion bill co-sponsored by 140 lawmakers was introduced in the House. Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., is among co-sponsors.
“These lands are a living part of our natural legacy and they must be protected against exploitation from those seeking profit at the public’s expense,” Berkley said in a prepared statement.
The legislation is the latest chapter in a debate over roadless forests that dates to the final days of the Clinton administration.
In 2000, the Forest Service completed environmental reviews resulting in rules setting aside swaths of forest land from roadbuilding to protect watersheds and old-growth areas.
The Bush administration in 2005 replaced the national regulations with a state-by-state process. But the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned that policy and reinstated the roadless rules.
The new bills in Congress seek to write the roadless rules into federal law.
In Nevada, “a lot of land has largely remained roadless because it has remained ignored, but with the rapid growth in the state we cannot count on that,” said Dan Geary, a representative of the National Environmental Trust.
In northern and central Nevada, the roadless forests are the source of a significant amount of drinking water for rural communities, Geary said.
