'Roadless' forests opened up for review - Environment - MSNBC.com

'Roadless' forests opened up for review - Environment - MSNBC.com:

"The action, affecting forests mainly in the West, impacts the 'roadless rule' that President Clinton had put in place little more than a week before leaving office in January 2001. Clinton’s regulation blocked road construction as a way to prevent logging, mining and other industry activities in the backcountry.

Under existing local forest management plans, some 34.3 million acres could be opened to road construction. That would be the first step in allowing logging, mining and other industry and wider recreational uses of the land."