TRCP Offers Blueprint for Strengthening Colorado Roadless Rule
News for Immediate Release
Oct. 6, 2008
Contact: Jason Sorter, 303-638-5207, jsorter@trcp.org
Katie McKalip, 406-240-9262, kmckalip@trcp.org
TRCP Offers Blueprint for Strengthening Colorado Roadless Rule
Sportsmen detail weaknesses of draft rule, offer guidelines for conserving secure
habitat and sporting opportunities in Colorado backcountry
WASHINGTON – A draft plan for managing national forest roadless areas in Colorado can sustain healthy habitat, secure fish and wildlife populations and uphold hunting and fishing traditions if common-sense revisions are implemented, according to comments released today by the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership. In a letter to the Roadless Area Conservation National Advisory Council (RACNAC), which is developing recommendations for the draft Colorado roadless rule, the sportsmen outline problems and offer solutions for how federal and state authorities can improve the plan.
The TRCP analysis of the draft Colorado roadless rule highlights loose management guidelines allowing excessive road building and timber cutting that could affect big-game and trout habitat. Specific points raised by the sportsmen’s group include the following:
Timber cutting away from communities – outside the wildland urban interface – should be done infrequently and maintain or improve roadless area characteristics.
Fuel reduction work to protect homes from wildfire should concentrate on communities. Using congressionally defined “community protection zones” will focus these projects appropriately.
New roads for utility and water conveyances should be allowed only for projects approved prior to 2001, when the national roadless rule was implemented.
New roads to access 70,000 acres of oil and gas leases sold since 2001 should be prohibited.
“The state of Colorado and the Forest Service must revise language governing timber cutting and road building,” said Jason Sorter, a TRCP field representative and third-generation Coloradan. “The devil is in the details, and the TRCP is helping refine the details to assure a positive future for fish and game populations and hunting and fishing.
“Under the draft rule, new roads are permitted in all 4.1 million acres of Colorado’s backcountry for power line corridors and water projects,” continued Sorter, a lifelong hunter and angler. “This makes no sense. The good news is that Governor Ritter seems to understand the problems – like this one – with the rule. We need his leadership to fix them.”
The TRCP recommendations to the RACNAC follow a series of meetings convened by the U.S. Forest Service to enable citizens’ input on the plan. The public comment period ends Oct. 23. Roadless areas provide superior habitat to species prized by sportsmen and form the backbone of more than $1 billion hunter and anglers contribute annually to Colorado’s economy.
“As the opportunity for public comment in Colorado nears its end and revision of the plan commences, sportsmen point toward the fine example set by Idaho in developing its almost-final roadless plan,” said Joel Webster, TRCP roadless initiative manager. “Idaho’s roadless rule was achieved only through the strong leadership of state officials, the U.S. Forest Service and experts on the RACNAC.
“A similar outcome still can be attained in Colorado, but only if meaningful modifications are made to the proposed rule,” Webster concluded. “Gov. Ritter and the Forest Service must willingly engage with the RACNAC if our outdoor traditions are to endure on Colorado’s more than 4 million acres of national forest backcountry.”
Visit the TRCP Web site to learn more about the proposed Colorado rule.
Inspired by the legacy of Theodore Roosevelt, the TRCP is a coalition of organizations and grassroots partners working together to preserve the traditions
of hunting and fishing.
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