Last spring the Bush administration decided to revise former President Bill Clinton's Roadless Area Conservation Rule, in part by seeking advice from governors as to which roadless areas in their states should or should not be preserved.

It's perhaps too easy to imagine Bush officials assuming that the governors would find local sentiment favoring more roads, especially in the West, where everybody knows people hate the government anyway. Instead, in Montana at least, what Gov. Brian Schweitzer is finding is a big dose of common sense.

At a meeting with a group of county commissioners Monday, Schweitzer was told Montana's 6.4 million acres of federal roadless land don't need any new roads, thank you. Why build them when the feds can't even maintain the roads they already have?

But, the commissioners said, federal agencies should retain the flexibility to build news roads in cases of emergencies, such as fires or forest disease. (Clinton's rule also contained such exceptions.)

The commissioners' recommendation, not formally due until March, was a welcome one for those eager to protect the state's remaining roadless areas, which make up more than 10 percent of the nation's total. There remain, however, some deep concerns.

For one thing, the process asked states to identify and map the areas they want to protect, advise government agencies on management for roadless areas, determine effects on wildlife, and other requirements that states have neither the time nor the money to meet.

And in the end, the Department of Agriculture retains final approval over any plan for a roadless area, regardless of what all those "local" people say they want.

Still, in gathering input from Montana's county commissioners, Schweitzer is providing an impressive statement about the state's will. Let's hope it makes a difference.