White House compromise expected on roadless forests.(Knight Ridder Newspapers)

WASHINGTON _ The Bush administration faces another environmental land mine this week, planted late in the Clinton administration.

At issue is an important environmental question: what to do about the Clinton administration's proposal to declare 58.5 million acres of roadless national forests off limits to timber and mining companies.

Environmental activist groups and allied Democrats Tuesday stepped up the pressure on President Bush, still smarting from a backlash against his controversial positions on arsenic in drinking water and carbon dioxide pollution from power plants.

In a Tuesday press conference, the environmentalists offered 1.6 million pieces of paper, symbolizing public comments heavily favoring the ban, and a letter signed by more than 100 supportive lawmakers. The lawmakers, mostly Democrats, warned Bush "not to cash in on the short-term and short-sighted opportunity to extract resources from our pristine forests."

Forest industry officials, and lots of Republicans, want the Clinton ban junked because they said it is illegal, hurried, and part of a rigged rule-making process.

"Unfortunately the Clinton administration left this land mine for the Bush administration as they have on so many other issues," said Chris West, vice president of the American Forest Resource Council in Portland, Ore., which represents 100 western forest product makers.

"Certainly the population pressure is on the president to keep the roadless policy in place because it's emotional," said Rep. Scott McInnis, R-Colo, and chairman of the House forests subcommittee.