North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia asked the federal government yesterday to protect hundreds of thousands of acres in national forests from road construction. They are the first states to ask the Agriculture Department to use a new federal rule that governs whether roads can be built in pristine areas of national forests.

[Read](http://www.journalnow.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=WSJ%2FMGArticle%2FWSJ_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1137835952168&path=!localnews&s=1037645509099) (Winston-Salem Journal)