Maine could lose ecotourism business now that the Bush administration has repealed the “roadless rule” restrictions on logging, mining and road building on 58.5 million acres of federal forestland, Gov. John Baldacci said Thursday.

The U.S. Forest Service announced Wednesday that the Clinton-era policy would be replaced by a more flexible system of state rule, to allow protection of the most important ecological resources without hampering resource-dependent industries.

Governors now have 18 months to tell the federal government whether they want to enact strict state restrictions or to pursue development in their state’s national forests.

Baldacci said in a statement released Thursday that he will petition for protection of the 6,000 acres in Maine affected by the change.

“Our roadless areas are vital for outdoor recreation in the western mountains,” Baldacci said.

Maine has relatively minimal national forestland, just a portion of the White Mountain National Forest on the New Hampshire border in Oxford County. However, 60 miles of the East Coast Appalachian Trail, which reaches its terminus atop Mount Katahdin in Maine, could be affected by the change, conservationists have said.

Opponents of the change, including Matthew Davis of Environment Maine, cited a public comment period last summer during which more than 1.75 million people -15,000 of whom were from Maine – called for the roadless rule to be preserved.

“Yesterday, the clean drinking water, wildlife habitat and recreational opportunities our wild forests provide were protected and today they lie at the mercy of loggers and the oil industry,” Davis said in a statement released Thursday.

The roadless rule was approved by former President Clinton just over a week before he left office in 2001, and has faced legal challenges from opponents, some of which are still pending. It was designed to use a ban on road building as a means of preventing the encroachment of resource extraction industries into wild forests.

With Thursday’s change, 24.2 million acres of forestland will retain protection because of existing forest management plans, although these federal plans are rewritten on a regular basis. And as many as 34.4 million acres could become available for road construction and the industrial development that may follow, according to U.S. Forest Service estimates.

That’s bad for business, said Eric Wallace, environmental liaison for Patagonia, an outdoor gear and clothing store in Freeport.

“Few of our clients go to the great outdoors to see stumps or toxic oil spills,” Wallace said in a statement released Thursday. “If the roadless areas of the White Mountain National Forest are logged or drilled, they’re going to go elsewhere, or not come [to Maine] to enjoy the outdoors at all.”

The Associated Press contributed to this story.