Secretary Veneman, whose department oversees the U.S. Forest Service, announced a new plan for developing rules to govern activities in so-called roadless areas in national forests and grasslands. While the almost 60 million acres is called roadless, it contains thousands of miles of dirt roads and trails used by motorcyclists, all-terrain vehicle users, horse riders, hikers and others.

Under the new plan, governors would work with federal officials to make rules regulating the roadless areas in their states. The governors would have 18 months after this new proposal becomes final to submit their petitions with their specifics to the Forest Service. The Forest Service then would go through a rulemaking process, including soliciting public comment, before announcing final rules for roadless areas in a particular state.

"This is great news not only for off-highway motorcyclists and ATV riders, but for horse riders, bicyclists and others as well," said Edward Moreland, AMA vice president for government relations.

"We opposed the original roadless initiative because it didn't provide for enough comment at the local level. This new effort should give the public an opportunity to let their governors, and federal officials, know how important it is to maintain existing recreational opportunities," Moreland said.

The announcement marks the latest step to deal with the controversial roadless initiative, finalized by the Clinton administration in January 2001, to ban road-building and commercial activities on almost 60 million acres of roadless land. Even though those regulations stated that "Nothing in this rule is intended to prohibit the authorized construction or maintenance of motorized or non-motorized trails," the AMA remained concerned that the rule could lead to widespread road and trail closures as feeder roads were not maintained.

There are 39 states with roadless areas on national forest land, but just 12 states contain 56.6 million acres, or 97 percent. Those states are Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Wyoming.

The roadless initiative has been the subject of litigation in Alaska, Idaho, Utah, North Dakota, Wyoming and the District of Columbia. In 2001 a federal judge in Idaho issued an order blocking implementation of the roadless initiative as a result of a lawsuit filed by the state of Idaho and others. The suit alleged the Clinton administration violated the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) by deciding on the roadless rules before involving the public in the rule-making.

In July 2003, a federal judge in Wyoming blocked implementation of the roadless rule.

"The prospect of endless lawsuits represents neither progress, nor certainty for communities," Veneman said in her announcement in Boise, Idaho. "Our announcements today illustrate our commitment to working closely with the nation's governors to meet the needs of local communities, and to maintaining the undeveloped character of the most pristine areas of the national forest system."

While the new rules are being considered, the roadless areas will be governed by an interim directive that bars road construction unless personally approved by U.S. Forest Service Chief Dale Bosworth.

The roadless initiative has remained highly controversial because of logging restrictions.