Obama moves to curb road-building in forests

WASHINGTON (AP)

The Obama administration is ordering a one-year moratorium on most road-building and other development on about 50 million acres (20 million hectares) of remote national forests. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack issued a directive Thursday reinstating for one year most of a Clinton-era ban against new road construction and development in national forests. The 2001 rule banned road-building and logging in more than 58 million acres of remote national forests, mostly in the West. Conflicting court decisions issued since then have left the so-called roadless rule's legal statu...