ASHINGTON, July 12 - The Bush administration on Monday proposed scuttling a rule from the Clinton administration that put nearly 60 million acres of national forest largely off limits to logging, mining or other development in favor of a new system that would leave it to governors to seek greater - or fewer - strictures on road construction in forests.

The announcement abandoning the so-called roadless rule was made by Agriculture Secretary Ann M. Veneman in Boise, Idaho, where opposition to the rule issued by President Bill Clinton as he was leaving office was most pronounced.

Ms. Veneman described the proposal as a way to sidestep the tangle of litigation over building roads through national forests and to improve local participation and federal flexibility in determining the use of national forests.

"State governments are important partners in the stewardship of the nation's lands and natural resources," she said.

A spectrum of environmental groups reacted with disappointment and outrage to the announcement.

"This doesn't ensure that a single acre of roadless area gets protected," said Marty Hayden, legislative director for Earthjustice, one of several groups that are defending the Clinton rule in federal court.

"Everything could be up for grabs," Mr. Hayden said.

Ms. Veneman's announcement was a signature moment for the Bush administration's environmental policy. After three years of gradually retreating from Mr. Clinton's sweeping preservationist rule, which covered about 30 percent of the 191 million acres of national forest and was embraced by environmentalists, the administration is decisively rejecting it and substituting a process that makes state officials the moving force in deciding whether to log or to conserve forest lands.

The administration had offered at best a perfunctory defense of the rule when it was challenged by the State of Idaho, but the preliminary injunction by a federal district judge there striking down the rule was later overturned by the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, in San Francisco. Last summer, another federal judge, in Wyoming, struck down the roadless rule; Earthjustice and other groups are appealing that ruling to the United States Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit, in Denver.

James L. Connaughton, chairman of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, said in an interview: "The context for this was: ad hoc doesn't get us to where we want to be; one-size-fits-all was creating some real issues at the margins. Can we construct a process that will be respectful of local needs and still let us put an important focus on conservation of roadless areas? That's what this is about."

Under the proposal, Mr. Connaughton said, a governor could petition the Forest Service to expand existing roadless protections, keep them the same, or contract them. For each state, he added, "it will put in place a more strategic vision of how roadless conservation will be handled."

The announcement Monday also reflected the administration's willingness to break with allies in the conservation field. Jim Range, a former senior Republican Congressional staff member who in 2001 helped establish the Forest Road Working Group to advise the administration on the issue, issued a statement saying that the loss of the protections was a disappointment.

"The current regulation established an important degree of certain protection to these valuable areas, which provide important fish and wildlife habitat and recreational opportunities for American hunters, anglers, campers, hikers and others," Mr. Range, who is also chairman of the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership, said.

"The new process by which state governors can submit new roadless area protection plans will perpetuate the uncertainty associated with this issue,'' he said, "and may lead to a substantial reduction in the level of protection that roadless areas are afforded."

The proposal, which will be open to public comment for the next 60 days, includes a provision for an 18-month period in which governors can prepare their requests. During that time, changes to a roadless designation could be made with the approval of the Forest Service chief, Dale Bosworth.

After that, the governors could seek changes in designations in individual forest management plans that predated the Clinton rule. At the time the rule was proposed, about 58.5 million acres of national forest was roadless, but roads were contemplated on more than 34 million.

The national division over the issue of roads and timber harvests was visible in Congress last month. In a close vote, the House approved a measure prohibiting the use of federal money for new logging roads in the Tongass National Forest.

The Tongass, a West Virginia-size swath of rock and timber in southeastern Alaska, had been exempted from the Clinton rule's protections by an earlier decision. Last week, the Forest Service announced the approval or likely approval of two timber projects in the forest, which are likely to require more than 25 miles of new roads.

The 12 states most affected by the roadless issue, which contain 97 percent of all roadless areas in the country, are Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Wyoming.

Gov. Dirk Kempthorne of Idaho, a Republican, appeared with Ms. Veneman at Monday's news conference and said of roadless protections: "There's a right way and a wrong way to make that determination. Today the federal government and the Bush administration is doing it the right way. We now have a roadless process that can be accomplished by respecting state sovereignty."

Montana's governor, Judy Martz, a Republican, said in a statement, "The president has again proven that he and his administration understand that state, tribal, and local governments are best equipped to make key decisions about the future of our public lands."

But in a conference call with reporters, New Mexico's governor, Bill Richardson, a Democrat and energy secretary under Mr. Clinton, said, "These are areas that the federal government should manage consistently from state to state."

Mr. Richardson called the current proposal " bad policy, bad environmental policy, bad Western policy." The Bush administration, he said, "wants to drill, drill, build, build."

Allison Dobson, a press officer for John Kerry's Democratic presidential campaign, said in a statement: "This battle has been hard-fought. A clear majority of Americans support the roadless rule, and it's unfortunate that George Bush has chosen to ignore the needs of not only the wildlife, but the many Americans who enjoy recreation in these areas."

Mr. Connaughton, in his interview, said, "They are national lands for a public purpose."

Most of the people who use the lands, he added, "are state citizens." Each governor, he said, is free to apply for the full protections afforded by the Clinton rule.

Asked if in a decade, under this proposal, there would be more or fewer roadless areas, he said, "Couldn't say. Couldn't say."