WASHINGTON - On Oct. 15, a three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in Seattle will hear arguments in a case that will determine the legality of the Roadless Area Conservation Rule.

The court hearing addresed an appeal by environmental intervenors of the May 10 decision by Judge Edward Lodge of the Idaho federal district court in which he issued a preliminary injunction against the implementation of the rule.

The court of appeals will determine whether the Roadless Rule, which bars most logging and road building on 58.5 million acres of national forest lands will go into effect. In addition the decision may address a number of legal issues raised in the idaho litigation as well as in the seven other lawsuits filed against the rule.

"There was a hearing about the appeal," Michael Anderson, Senior Resource Analyst for The Wilderness Society said to LASN. "There has been no decision yet from the court of appeals."

The Roadless Area Conservation Rule was adopted on Jan. 12 after nearly three years of analysis, development and the greatest outreach in the history of federal rulemaking. More than 90 percent of the 1.6 million comments called for the strongest protection possible for roadless areas in the National Forests, according to Anderson.

The Bush administration has professed support for roadless area protection but intends to substantially amend the Roadless Area Conservation Rule, Anderson said. A Forest Service request for public coment on potential changes in the Rule elicited more than 800,000 responses by the Sept. 10 comment deadline.

"There was an interim management directive from the Forest Service which there was a public comment period on, and there has been no action in Congress to speak of," Anderson said. "We're expecting a decision from the court by the end of the year."