Federal judge overturns national forest `roadless rule'

CHEYENNE, Wyo. - A federal judge in Wyoming has overturned a Clinton-era ban on road construction in nearly 60 million acres of national forest - thousands of them in northeast Georgia.

U.S District Judge Clarence Brimmer's ruling is the latest turn in a long-running legal dispute over a Clinton administration rule limiting logging and other development in roadless areas such as those in the Chattahoochee National Forest.

Brimmer says the rule violates the National Environmental Policy Act and the Wilderness Act.

The ruling mirrors a similar one he issued in 2003 in response to a lawsuit filed by Wyoming challenging the Clinton rule. That ruling was rendered moot when the Bush administration decided not to appeal and instead issued its own rule.

A federal court in California later reinstated the Clinton rule from 2001.