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Green Groups: Throw Out Colorado Grasslands Plan
April 3, 2007 5:14 PM
State environmental groups are demanding that the U.S. Forest Service rescind the comprehensive plan for the Cimarron and Comanche national grasslands in southeastern Colorado and western Kansas. This in the wake of last Friday's decision by a federal court judge throwing out the rules that the plan was written under. The plan for the grasslands was the first in the nation to be drafted using the new rules, which the Bush administration implemented in 2005. The administration said its new rules were more efficient and adaptable than the old ones, which had been in effect since 1982.
Today the conservation groups Forest Guardians and Colorado Wild issued a statement demanding that plan for the one million acre Cimmarron and Commanche grasslands be withdrawn. The plan was within days of being finalized, the last opportunity for the public to file a formal objection to it was supposed to be next Wednesday. But after the federal judge last week found that the rules used to write the plan violated the National Environmental Policy Act and Endangered Species Act, Forest Service officials in Pueblo and Washington, D.C. said they're not sure how they're supposed to proceed. They did note, however, that to date no formal objections to the grasslands plan had been filed.
Also in limbo is the comprehensive plan for the Pike - San Isabel National Forest. That forest comprises two million acres along the Sangre de Cristo and Front Ranges between La Veta and Denver. Forest officials launched the process to start writing a new Pike - San Isabel plan in December, and held several public meetings to take input around the region in January and February.
At least two other national forests in western Colorado were also working on new plans when Friday's ruling came down. Nationwide there are 155 national forets, 40 of which were engaged in similar comprehensive planning processes. The Bush administration has not yet announced whether it will appeal last Friday's ruling, or how it thinks forests should proceed with planning processes for now.
Posted by Eric Whitney on April 3, 2007 5:14 PM | Permalink
