The administration disagreed with the assertion, noting commitments from the Forest Service to work with the Interior Department to protect the sensitive forestland around the parks.
The White House announced this month plans to rescind a policy President Clinton enacted in the last days of his administration closing 58.5 million acres of national forests to road construction or oil and gas development, including 4 million acres in Utah.
Utah was among the states that sued the government over the Clinton rule.
The management of the nation's forests and parks could become an election issue in Western states. The Kerry campaign has criticized Bush for seeking to reverse the roadless policy.
The rule doesn't allow roads to cross into the park boundaries, but Peter Altman, director of the Campaign to Protect America's Lands, said you can't build a road near the park without damaging the park's value.
“The Bush administration's repeal of the roadless rule turns our national parks into front-row seats for the destruction of our national forests,” Altman said. “Worse, the parks themselves will suffer from the collateral damage of timber clear-cuts, destroyed wildlife habitats and migratory corridors, streams destroyed by sediment, and the noise and stench of industrial development.”
Altman's group identified 23 parks - including Bryce Canyon National Park, Timpanogos Cave National Monument and Capitol Reef National Park in Utah - bordered by varying amounts of national forestland it said could suffer if timber is cut or oil or gas is drilled on the land.
The areas now purportedly in danger from development went unscathed for generations prior to the enactment of the Clinton roadless rule in 2001.
"There may not be any immediate effects of this, but without that protection, as things progress a year or two or three down the road, there's no doubt in my mind that some of these areas could be pretty heavily exploited by some of these companies," said Bill Wade, spokesman for the Coalition of Concerned National Park Service Retirees.
The Bush administration says the concern is unfounded, and emphasized that the Forest Service plans to work closely with the Park Service in managing the lands surrounding the parks.
“We will work closely with you and that we will strive to manage the national forest lands so that the integrity of the National Parks is maintained,” Forest Chief Dale Bosworth wrote last week in a letter to Park Service Director Fran Mainella.
