Mike Styler, executive director of the Utah Department of Natural Resources, said the rule gives great flexibility to governors to respond on a forest-by-forest basis to issues involving roadless areas. "It also allows the needs and concerns of local communities to be addressed," he said.

A news release issued by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the department that includes the Forest Service, says the earlier road rule was issued on Jan. 12, 2001, and struck down by a federal court in July 2003. A department summary states the 2001 rule was "deemed in violation of both the National Environmental Policy Act and the Wilderness Act."

The department was relying on a decision by a U.S. District Court judge, but an appeals court — a higher court in another jurisdiction — upheld the 2001 rule, said Heidi McIntosh, conservation director for the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance. "The argument on appeal (of the district court ruling) was to be heard today," she said Thursday.

"The Forest Service is citing a lower court opinion, which is on appeal, and ignoring the higher court's opinion upholding the roadless rule," she said. "So they're relying on dubious legal authority."

LeGate said the rule change ignores more than 4 million comments made by Americans in favor of the original rule. "And in Utah, the comments were overwhelmingly in favor of the original roadless rule," he added.

Logging and road-building increase the risk of wildfire, he said. "The announcement today is the result of a sham process that was actually run by big timber corporations."

Brent Gardner, spokesman for the Utah Association of Counties, said the group was circulating information to the counties about the new regulation, and members will be discussing it to determine what it means.

Steed said he's not expecting the new rule to change much. "It's not like they're going to start building roads in roadless areas tomorrow."

Many national forest areas with timber that potentially could be harvested already have roads, he said.

"The Forest Service still hasn't been able to get their program up to speed, like we think they need to, on existing roaded areas," Steed said. "Forget the roadless; the roaded areas are still being challenged."

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