Bush exempts forest from 'roadless' rule

WASHINGTON, Dec. 24 (UPI) -- The Bush administration has exempted Alaska's Tongass National Forest from a hard-fought rule that environmentalists hoped would block development.

Exempting the forest, the country's largest, from the so-called "roadless rule" potentially opens up more than half of the 17 million-acre forest for more development and as many as 50 logging projects, the New York Times reported Wednesday.

The administration's decision stems from the settlement of a lawsuit between Alaska and the federal government over the rule, which blocked road building in 58.5 million acres of undeveloped national forest across the country.

Conservation groups said the administration had failed to defend the roadless designation adequately.

"We didn't really need roadless to protect the Tongass," a forest service spokesman said. "We already have a forest plan in place to protect the Tongass."

Before putting the roadless designation into effect, the Forest Service had drawn up plans for the immediate development of 300,000 acres in the Tongass. Environmental groups say that about 9.6 million acres of the Tongass could be affected by the dropping of the ban.