A federal conservation proposal banning any new road construction within 43 million acres of national forest lands drew heated comments from local residents at a public meeting held Tuesday night in Durango.

"We have one of the highest living standards of any country in the world and all of that comes from our resources," said Mitzi Wallace, representing a Cortez ranching family. "And this proposal is one step, of many, of a withdrawal of those resources."

Wallace and others from the Cortez area objected to the proposal because they believe it will hurt the local economy and prevent public access to these areas.

The federal initiative, which was released by the Clinton administration May 10, would ban the construction of new roads in parcels of national forests that contain at least 5,000 acres of roadless terrain or that sit adjacent to other federally protected areas such as wilderness areas or wilderness study areas.

Between 5,000 and 10,000 acres of Montezuma County, encompassing Hesperus Peak, Shark’s Tooth Peak and Centennial Peak and a portion of the Bear Creek drainage, would stay roadless under the plan.

"I think most of the roadless areas are still unroaded for a good reason. They tend to be what’s left of the steep, more inaccessible places," said Thurman Wilson, forest planner with the San Juan National Forest. "It just hasn’t been financially viable to build roads in them for the reasons that we typically build roads."

Overall, there are a half million acres of designated roadless areas within the 1.9 million-acre San Juan National Forest in Southwest Colorado, most of which is located in the central part of the national forest and the eastern sections near Pagosa Springs.

Rick Keck, a member of the Southwest Colorado Landowners’ Association, said that the proposal was an illegal attempt by the federal government to deny the public access to federal lands.

"This Forest Service’s finding of no significant impact for the proposal is ridiculous and absurd," Keck said.

Wallace agreed with Keck, claiming that the Forest Service’s proposal was an attack on the American people.

"This is a war. It’s a war on our nation’s economy. It’s a war on your food supply, and we’re calmly discussing it," she said.

Wilson said that although loggers have not needed to build roads into most of these areas, about a quarter of the forest’s suitable timber-harvesting region would ultimately remain roadless under the plan. This includes approximately 90,000 acres.

The proposal would not affect existing roads, trails, or further restrict motorized vehicle use, such as snowmobiling.

The Montezuma County Commissioners submitted a written statement on May 22 to the Forest Service opposing the roadless plan.

"Locally, we have been in the forefront of local-state-federal cooperation in efforts to improve productive harmony based on sound and carefully monitored scientific, economic and public involvement principles," the letter stated. "The proposed action fails to use all practicable means to maintain productive harmony."

Mike Preston, the Montezuma County federal lands coordinator, said the commissioners are concerned that local involvement and solutions have been circumvented by the proposal, and cited areas of concern they had with both the proposal and its implementation.

"We’ve tried to put a strategy in place and we’re really concerned that policies generated without a real understanding of the local landscape will actually inhibit the way to make progress," said Preston.

Cal Joyner, the San Juan National Forest Supervisor, said that he thinks the issue will be easier to resolve on a national, rather than a local level.

"I think it’s a better approach to have a national approach versus 155 different solutions based on each national forest’s communities and the whims of whoever’s in charge of that particular forest," said Joyner.

The San Juan National Forest managers are in the early stages of their management plan, a plan which Joyner said would likely have included plans for roadless areas without the federal initiative.

Tuesday’s meeting at the San Juan Public Lands Center was the last of three public meetings held since December on the topic. According to Forest Service officials, 84 people gave testimony at the meeting.

Virtually every type of user was represented at the meeting. Biologists, foresters, loggers, ranchers, recreationists, and environmentalists were all given three minutes to state their cases either for or against the proposal.

Joyner was not surprised with the range of comment given.

"The roadless areas have been important to the American people forever," said Joyner. "You have heartfelt values on both sides. You have people who care deeply about their way of life, or what they want their way of life to be."

Mark Pearson, representing the San Juan Citizens Alliance, gave the Durango-based conservation organization’s wholehearted support for further protection of the roadless areas.

In addition, the group asked U.S. Forest Service Chief Mike Dombeck to include protection of all roadless areas greater than 1,000 acres in size, and consider limiting motorized recreational use to the areas where such use is presently occurring.

Representatives from the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe attended and voiced concern about keeping their current tribal hunting rights intact.

"The Ute people, the natives of this state, are opposing this," said Carl Knight. "It’s going to change the way of life of all people."