The Green Files > The Road to Hell is….well…a Road

[unbossed.com] Beyond the details of the Act (which I will discuss at a later date) the politics of Bush’s gutting of the Roadless Area Conservation Rule and subsequent disavowal of the opinions of literally millions of Americans, its important to understand just how very bad roads are from an ecosystem perspective and to be armed the with scientific knowledge of what roads bring to an ecosystem (It’s also vital to understand the economic benefit of Roadless Areas as well as the spiritual and social benefits to having places without roads - but thats another subject). So, what does a road do to an ecosystem?

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http://thewesterner.blogspot.com [The Westerner] NEWS ROUNDUP Editorial: Feds, Wyoming split over ...: For the past 30 years, the Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team has been trapping, radio-collaring and studying hundreds of the great bears throughout the Greater Yellowstone ecosystem as their number increased. Their work is evaluated by a committee made up of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Geological Survey Biological Resources, National Park Service, U.S. Forest Service, Wyoming, Idaho and Montana fish and game departments, and Montana State University.

http://ajherz.blogspot.com [Uncertainty and confusion...] Fence, beach, and snowmobile!: Congress established Padre Island National Seashore to: “Save and preserve, for purposes of public recreation, benefit, and inspiration, a portion of the diminishing seashore of the United States that remains undeveloped.” The Code of Federal Regulations Title 36 charges the National Park Service to prevent damage to the environment and insure “that all units of the National Park System are left unimpaired.” However, according to the Environmental Impact Statement conducted for BNP’s drilling operations, this level of exploration and development will use “748 acres of the terrestrial landbase for seismic exploration and up to 250 acres of direct surface impacts for drilling and production operations.” The “direct surface impacts” refer to the construction of roads and well-pads. That is nearly 1000 acres of pristine habitat that may be usurped by petroleum interests.

[Howling At A Waning Moon] LEGISLATIVE WATCH: The 108th Congress: January 2003 - December 2004: The Senate committee's bill did not include exemptions to the Marine Mammal Protection Act, but did contain the Pentagon's language exempting the military from designating critical habitat on military land to ensure the survival of endangered species. The full Senate voted 51-48 to restrict the Endangered Species Act exemption by requiring that the Secretary of the Interior determine that management plans on military lands would effectively protect endangered species and that adequate funding would be available for such plans.

Northwestwatch.org[Northwestwatch.org] Northwest Environment Watch - Expand roadless areas: Northwest Environment Watch, Sign up for Scorecard Updates .its emphasis from logging to ecosystem management, and road building fell to about one-tenth .

Forests.orghttp://forests.org [Forests.org] Forest Conservation Blog: June 2003 Archives: - is to be opened up to logging. roadless areas in National Forests from road construction and most logging .

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