An appeal by environmental groups to restore a ban on logging in roadless areas of US national forests has been dismissed as irrelevant by a federal court.
The three-judge panel said the Bush administration’s recent adoption of a new rule allowing logging and roadbuilding in national forests had rendered the appeal moot.
The court action was an appeal against a ruling in Wyoming two years ago which overturned the Clinton administration’s ban on logging in roadless areas.
Under the new regulations, states have until 2006 to ask the US department of agriculture to either stop or allow roadbuilding in national forests.
