Two days before Christmas, the Bush administration finalized plans to open 300,000 acres in Alaska’s Tongass National Forest for logging and development, removing protection provided by the Clinton-era “roadless rule,” which banned road construction in 58.5 million acres of national forests. “The Bush administration has turned its back on the public, good science, and the law in its effort to clearcut the Tongass,” said Tom Waldo, an Earthjustice attorney. “This is obviously a Christmas present from the Bush administration to the timber industry which wants the right to clearcut in America’s greatest temperate rainforest.” Upon taking office, the Bush administration immediately delayed the effective date of the Clinton roadless rule and refused to defend it against legal challenges, reaching a settlement to change the policy despite public sentiment. Of more than 250,000 public comments submitted on the issue, fewer than 2,000 favored removing protection from the Tongass. On top of opening the Tongass, the administration previously announced in June 2003 that it would grant state exemptions to the roadless rule to allow logging in other protected wilderness areas.