Clarion Content

The Chattahoochee National Forest

This was one of the changes the Clarion Content had in mind when we endorsed Barack Obama for President last fall. The Obama administration announced yesterday that no new timber-cutting or road project could begin in road-less areas of national forests without the permission of the secretary of agriculture. Hooray!

This is a major reversal of the environment gutting policies of King George the II. The directive applies to almost 58.5 million acres of road-less areas.

However, the 9th and 10th Circuit Appeals courts have issued contradictory rulings on the policy and the issue could eventually end up in front of the Supreme Court, possibly as a states rights issue. Somehow, according to the New York Times, national forests in Idaho are exempt from yesterday's announcement. The Agriculture Department called it an interim measure meant to bring “consistency and clarity” to decisions on an ecological issue that has been subject to legal battles since the Clinton administration banned such projects in road-less areas in 2001.

Read more here in the New York Times.

Labels: 2008 presidential election, ecology, Politics