§460vv–4 Wilderness review

Summary

Makes the Department of Agriculture’s second roadless review (RARE II) the final word for roadless National Forest lands in Oklahoma and bars court challenges to the RARE II Final Environmental Impact Statement dated January 1979 for those Oklahoma lands. Because Congress has already reviewed those roadless areas and their environmental effects, the RARE II review (and some other specific reviews named below) counts as enough study for the first land management plans required by federal forest planning laws. The Department does not have to re-check the wilderness option before the first plan revisions, but it must consider the wilderness option when those plans are revised, which normally happens every ten years or at least every fifteen years unless the Secretary of Agriculture finds big changes sooner. Roadless areas in Oklahoma that were studied but not made wilderness when this law took effect must be managed for multiple uses under the land management plans and do not have to be managed to protect their wilderness suitability before or during the initial plan revisions. At later plan revisions, areas not recommended for wilderness still need not be managed to protect wilderness suitability, while areas recommended for wilderness must be managed to protect that suitability as required by law. The Department may not do another statewide roadless-area review in Oklahoma for wilderness purposes unless Congress says it can. “Revision” does not mean an “amendment.” The rules also apply to Ouachita National Forest lands evaluated in the Rich Mountain and Beech Creek unit plans and to roadless lands under 5,000 acres.