HD Mountains Roadless Area

Happy Holidays to Colorado! Our state’s roadless national forests got a last-minute reprieve on Friday thanks to Governor Ritter, who asked the Bush Administration to put the brakes on the Forest Service’s rush to write a lousy roadless rule for Colorado before Bush leaves town in January. Specifically, Mike King, the Deputy Director of Colorado’s Department of Natural Resources, gets credit for staring down Mark Rey, who oversees things at the Forest Service, and making sure Colorado’s best interests were being put ahead of the current administration’s desire to fast-track even more 11th hour anti-environmental policies. The result is that President-elect Obama and not President Bush will now be penning the rule affecting the fate of more than four million acres of pristine, road-free national forests in Colorado – some of the best wildlife habitat and backcountry recreation areas anywhere in the West! While most conservationists, hunters and anglers believe that Colorado would be better off with one national rule covering all of America’s roadless forests rather than a separate rule for Colorado, there is no disagreement about whether our state’s forests will do better under the new Administration.