WASHINGTON — National Park Service retirees say the vistas, solitude and wildlife of three Utah national parks are threatened by a Bush administration proposal to allow roads for mining, timber cuts and oil exploration into "roadless" national forest areas.

Bryce Canyon and Capitol Reef national parks and Timpanogos Cave National Monument would suffer if such development occurs in nearby forests, according to a study released Wednesday by the Coalition of Concerned National Park Service Retirees and the Campaign to Protect America's Lands.

"Many of our national forest roadless areas sit cheek-by-jowls with national parks," said Bill Wade, spokesman for the park retirees group and a former superintendent of Shenandoah National Park. "You can't violate a roadless forest area that either borders or is nearby a national park without diminishing that national park."

The groups listed 23 parks in 16 states they said would be hurt by proposals to lift road bans on 58.5 million acres of national forests. Besides the three in Utah, the list includes such major parks as Yellowstone, Yosemite, Rocky Mountain, Grand Teton and Great Basin.

Under the Bush proposal announced earlier this month, governors would have to petition the federal government to block road-building in remote areas of national forests. Allowing roads to be built would open the areas to logging.

The Bush administration heralded the plan as an end to the legal uncertainty overshadowing tens of millions of acres of America's backcountry.

Wade drew special attention during a conference call with national reporters to Timpanogos Cave and Great Basin, located just over the Utah border in Nevada.

"These two areas are nearly surrounded on four sides by land that could be exploited under the roadless rule change. They look like the center of a bull's eye ring on an archery target — not a good situation," he said.

Peter Altman, director of the Campaign to Protect America's Lands, said, "18 percent of all the roadless areas now stripped of federal protections directly border or are adjacent to a national park, monument or parkway."

The report said Bryce Canyon has 43,840 acres of bordering national forest area; Capitol Reef has 121,920 acres; and Timpanogos Cave has 16,947 (plus another 4,973 of nearby roadless acreage).

A version of the report on the Internet included some comments of concern by Fred J. Fagergren, former superintendent of Bryce Canyon.

He said that vistas south and east of the park are in forests where uses are now limited, "but anything that would happen would create an impact highly visible to park visitors. As can be seen from maps, this is not miles away. It is immediately below" the park.