抄録
This study attempts to clarify how the “Roadless Area Rules” pertaining to the National Forest System lands have been revised since the 1990s, and why.
Many of the roadless areas inventoried in the Final Environmental Statement: Roadless Area Review and Evaluation (1979) comprised sites that were proposed for Wilderness Areas. In January 2001, the Clinton administration revised the roadless area rules, thereby empowering the federal government in principle to prohibit road construction in these inventoried roadless areas. However, this revision caused much controversy and sparked many lawsuits.
The succeeding Bush administration revised the same rule once again in 2005. This time, each state petitioned the federal government for a new rule that would enable the state to propose a rule more suited to its particular circumstances. In 2008, a new rule was approved for the state of Idaho. This rule relieved the state from the prohibition imposed by the 2001 rule; for example, it permitted road construction for logging and sulfur mining in specified areas.
