PARTIAL ROAD BUILDING MORATORIUM PROPOSED

     The Forest Service has proposed a roadbuilding moratorium
in some National Forest roadless areas that offers activists an
opportunity to press the Administration and Congress for the
permanent protection of these critical areas.  

     The proposal falls far short of President Clinton's promise
that these areas would be managed by science, not politics, but it
does represent a new recognition of the importance of roadless
areas by the Forest Service.  An estimated 33 million acres will be
covered by the moratorium which the agency says will reduce
logging levels 100-275 million board feet in FY 1998.

     The proposed rule is available in the Jan. 28, Federal
Register and can be obtained by contacting the Forest Service
website at http://www.fs.fed.us/ or by contacting WAFC.  The
roadbuilding moratorium begins when the final rule is issued
following the thirty-day comment period and will last eighteen
months or until a "roads assessment" process (similar to watershed
analysis) is implemented, whichever comes first.

     The moratorium includes all inventoried roadless areas
identified within the Forest Plans.  Roadless areas smaller than
5,000 acres that are adjacent to inventoried roadless areas,
designated Wilderness or Wild and Scenic Rivers designated "wild"
would also be included.  Regional Foresters will have the discretion
to include other roadless or very low density areas because of
unique ecological or social values such as municipal watersheds,
habitat for endangered species or areas inventoried by the Southern
Appalachian Ecosystem Assessment. 

     A total of twenty-eight National Forests that have had their
Forest Plans recently revised including the Tongass NF and Black
Hills NF, and those forests amended by the President's Northwest
Forest Plan were exempted from the draft proposal.  Uninventoried
roadless areas and areas smaller than 5,000 acres would also be
excluded.    


KEY POINTS ON THE ROADBUILDING MORATORIUM:

1)  The moratorium should apply to all National Forests.  There should
be no exemptions for any forests.  The Tongass NF and the Ancient
Forests of the Pacific Northwest are national treasures that should
preserved, not squandered.  In addition, the recently approved Forest
Plans for the Black Hills (SD) and Rio Grande NFs (CO) are woefully
inadequate plans that fail to protect the few remaining roadless areas
and propose no new lands for wilderness designation.

2)  The moratorium should apply to all roadless areas 1,000 acres or
larger.  Leaving smaller roadless areas out of the policy effectively
exempts certain regions of the country with few areas larger than 5,000
acres.  This is particularly true for Northeastern forests and the
Eastside forests of Oregon and Washington.

3)  The moratorium should apply to logging, grazing and oil & gas
development in addition to roadbuilding.  There is significant scientific
evidence that logging, grazing and oil drilling harm roadless areas and
are incompatible with maintaining the pristine character and ecological
functions of these areas.