Roadless rules

The Bush administration has scrapped a Clinton-era decision to ban all road-building in existing roadless areas of our national forests:

In the Superior forest, much of the land designated as roadless would have been near the BWCAW.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty has not yet committed to any proposal for the 62,000 acres of potential roadless area in the 2 million-acre Superior National Forest.

Minnesota environmental groups Thursday called on Pawlenty to immediately file to protect all 62,000 acres. But Scott Dane, executive director of the Associated Contract Loggers and Truckers Group, urged Pawlenty to leave the land open to new logging roads to make more trees available for mills.

The Friends of the Boundary Waters Wilderness have posted their response.

UPDATE: The Ely Echo reports on the Forest Service's ground-level view of forest management plans along the Echo Trail.