Most prominent among them is Senator Orrin Hatch, who is most chummy with the president, but other members of the Utah congressional delegation have also resented public ownership of Utah’s lands. As president, Mr. Roosevelt gave federal protection to 230 million acres (including 18 national monuments). Mr. Zinke, only 10 months into the job, is already in negative territory to the tune of about two million acres, with more coming. It would do so by exempting 9.6 million acres of the Tongass from the Roadless Rule, enacted by the Forest Service in 2001 under President Clinton. The rule, which has survived seemingly endless court challenges, effectively barred logging on 58 million acres of largely undisturbed forest land across the nation, including the Tongass.

Source: New York Times December 09, 2017 19:58 UTC