The plan, which still could be revised, would protect 58.5 million acres, an area nearly the size of Oregon that encompasses almost a third of all National Forest land. The major change from the original proposal announced in May was the inclusion of 9.3 million acres in the Tongass National Forest in Alaska in 2004.

The plan tightens restrictions on logging, allowing timber harvests and development in "roadless" areas only in certain circumstances, such as to reduce the risk of wildfires and to aid endangered species. The earlier version of the plan left it up to local forest managers to decide whether to restrict logging.

Administration officials changed the plan after receiving more than 1.5 million comments at public hearings and through written correspondence, agency officials said. The new plan rates as one of the top land preservation accomplishments of the past 100 years, along with passage of the Wilderness Act and President Theodore Roosevelt’s creation of the national forests. The Forest Service actually did listen to 1.5 million people. "There are certainly landmark events in the history of conservation -- this clearly is one of those landmark events," said Jim Lyons, the Agriculture Department under-secretary who oversees the Forest Service. "We are responding to the will of the American people."

This will reserve more options for the future, when needs may be different, and when more is known about these forests and their recovery.

Environmentalists have been pressing for a ban on road-building because roads increase erosion and muddy sediment, and destroy trout stream habitat, and they disrupt wildlife habitat. Roads make it easier for logging trucks and mining operators to reach remote public lands reducing already rare and increasingly valued wildness.

The announcement is the next-to last step in the process for crafting a rule without the involvement of Congress. Agency officials will decide whether to make more changes before they publish a final rule in mid-December, just a month before President Clinton leaves office. The rule will not take effect until mid-February, because of a federal law that delays new rules for 60 days if they have an economic impact of more than $100 million.

But many forest industry groups said the plan is too restrictive. And Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, predicted the proposed rule would be overturned in court and said he is examining ways to thwart the plan legislatively. "I’m not going to leave a stone unturned," he said.

Citizens must be alert to such a move by exploiters and their legislative pawns, and convey their support for this new conservative initiative.

On the Monongahela National Forest this will total 181,000 acres, or 20% of U.S. land within its boundary, that will be given added protection from roads. As the map shows the Monongahela had submitted about 20 areas for consideration and these are to be protected. The Wilderness areas and the National Recreation Area (NRA) are also shown.

This is a marvelously constructive move from the USFS leadership, signaling a more far-sighted and humbler approach to the management of our forests.