A federal judge on Friday dismissed a lawsuit by Idaho that sought to derail the Clinton administration’s plan to protect some 50 million acres of roadless national forest land from logging or development. The judge ruled that the process of public review has not gone far enough yet for Idaho to challenge the plan in court. But now opposition to the roadless plan is coming from the House Resources Committee, which has come out with a preliminary report saying the administration may have broken federal laws when it launched the effort to protect forests. A recent poll commissioned by American Forests found that 76 percent of respondents support the plan, including 72 percent of those in the West. More than 500,000 people have submitted public comments on the plan.
