CLINTON ADMINISTRATION PROMISES ACTION ON
ROADLESS AREAS

     When signing the Interior Appropriations bill, President Clinton
announced that the Forest Service is developing a new management
policy for roadless areas.  Here is an excerpt from the Statement by the
President:  

     "I will again propose elimination of purchaser road credits next
     year while holding counties and small businesses harmless and
     have asked the Secretary of Agriculture to take the necessary
     administrative steps to be prepared to implement the
     Administration's proposal in FY 1999.  Further, the Forest
     Service is developing a scientifically based policy for managing
     roadless areas in our national forests.  These last remaining wild
     areas are precious to millions of Americans and key to
     protecting clean water and abundant wildlife habitat, and
     providing recreation opportunities.  These unspoiled places must
     be managed through science, not politics."

     An Oct. 16 letter from Sec. Dan Glickman to Sen. Ron Wyden
(D-OR) providing more detail of the proposal states, "...the chief is
working on a roads policy that will address your concerns about
diminishing the threat of mud and landslides, encouraging development
of cheaper and more environmentally benign roads, and finally,
identifying and developing strategies to protect municipal watersheds
and roadless areas."

        
SEN. STROM THURMOND (R-SC) CALLS FOR
ROADLESS AREA MORATORIUM 

     Activists from the Southeast have done an outstanding job in
providing support for protection of roadless areas in their region.  A
letter they sent to Agriculture Sec. Dan Glickman detailed the threats
facing roadless areas in the Southeast and the minimal impact protection
would have on logging levels.  According to the Forest Service, only
5% of their timber sale program is planned for RARE II roadless areas
(data for each region is available).  Southeastern activists also secured a
letter from five U.S. Senators including Sens. John Warner (R-VA) and
Strom Thurmond (R-SC) to Sec. Glickman calling for a moratorium on
Southeastern timber sales in roadless areas until forest plans are
revised.