Lay of the Land

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A United Nation

Strong Consensus for Wild Woods

Despite overwhelming public support for wild forests, the Bush administration is gutting the Roadless Area Conservation Rule, which protected 58.5 million acres of national forests and grasslands from logging and mining. The rule came as a result of more than 600 public meetings and 2.2 million public comments–more than 95 percent of which favored strong wilderness protection. And we’re not talking just California and Massachusetts. Of the initial 1.2 million public comments, support for roadless wilderness topped 75 percent in all but six states. Only in Idaho did support drop below 50 percent. If only similar majorities would remember the Bush record come next November.
—Paul Rauber