The forest protection plan announced Oct 13 would require no congressional action, relying on regulations to be issued by the U.S. Forest Service after a detailed environmental review and public comments, said government sources, speaking on condition of not being identified. Currently, about 18 percent of the 192 million acres of federal forest is protected as wilderness. About 60 million acres are without roads, or signs of logging, mining and other development. The Wild Utah Forest Campaign has said that in Utah there are about 490,000 acres of roadless areas in the Uinta National Forest and about 452,000 acres of roadless areas in the Wasatch-Cache National Forest. Clinton's plan would cover isolated forest areas of 5,000 acres or more and would affect road-building and other development in 35 states, most of them in the West.
Roads open forest areas to development, erosion and pollution.
They also disrupt wildlife, plants and natural systems. Clinton said the timber industry would not be greatly affected by the proposal. Less than 5 percent of timber cut in the United States comes from national forests, and of that amount, just 5 percent comes from roadless areas, Clinton said. Nonetheless, roadless federal land also contains some of the most desirable timber owned by the Forest Service. Timber companies and their allies in Congress oppose any effort to close off future development.