In case you missed it, last Tuesday marked the 10-year anniversary of the Roadless Area Conservation Rule, which led to the protection of nearly 60 million acres of national forest, which in turn led to nearly a decade of lawsuits by loggers, developers and the Bush administration.

To get an idea of the scope of this thing, the Forest Service received more than 1.5 million public comments when it first enacted the road-building moratorium in January 1998, which led to the final rule three years later. Bush tried to block the rule within 24 hours of taking office, and it's essentially been in litigation ever since.

So perhaps its fitting that the Bush administration marked the 10-year anniversary of the rule by announcing a new management plan late last week that will open up 3.4 million acres of Alaska's Tongass National Forest to logging, road-building and mining, an area that includes 2.4 million acres designated as roadless under the Clinton administration.

Proponents say the new 10-year land use management plan for America's largest national forest will stimulate Alaska's slumping logging industry, as more than 600,000 acres of the land in question are considered prime for timber production. But many national environmental groups say the plan will devestate pristine swaths of previously-protected land.

In Alaska, however, some regional environmental groups are taking a wait-and-see approach. According to the Juneau Empire, the Southeast Alaska Conservation Council gave a cautious thumbs up to the plan.

Sources: MSNBC, NewWest, High Country News