The U.S. Forest Service has proposed rescinding the 2001 Roadless Rule, a landmark regulation that prohibits road construction, mining, and logging across 44 million acres of national forest land. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins announced the move on Tuesday at the Western Governors’ Association meeting in Santa Fe, New Mexico, calling the 25-year-old rule ‘disastrous’ for Western states where the federal government owns most of the land.
The proposal would overturn protections on roughly 44 million of the 193 million acres in the National Forest System. Rollins argued the rule has kept tens of millions of acres off-limits to forest management practices that could reduce wildfire risk. ‘Today, we filed a proposal to restore authority to local forest managers who know the land best,’ she said in a Forest Service press release.
Emergency Declaration Accelerates Logging Push
The announcement follows Rollins’s earlier declaration of a national forest emergency, which she said was necessary to allow the Forest Service to ‘get more logs on trucks’ and become ‘aggressive in our efforts to increase American timber production.’ The administration has framed the rollback as a way to reduce U.S. dependence on foreign timber producers and protect communities from catastrophic wildfires.
Under the Roadless Rule, established under the Clinton administration in January 2001, the Forest Service is prohibited from building roads or authorizing timber harvest on inventoried roadless areas. The rule covers 58.5 million acres of such land, of which roughly 28 million are in areas at high or very high wildfire risk, according to The Hill.
Environmental Groups Push Back
Environmental organizations moved quickly to condemn the proposal. The Center for Biological Diversity warned it would ‘clear the way for reckless projects that can permanently scar these spectacular roadless landscapes and do long-lasting harm to countless communities that depend on our national forests for tourism, recreation, and clean water.’ Advocates also raised concerns that the rollback could accelerate old-growth timber harvest in sensitive ecosystems.
The Biden administration had previously conducted a mature and old-growth forest census, which found that 76 percent of the 54 million acres of such forests managed by the Forest Service in the lower 48 states was vulnerable to logging. Environmental groups argue the Roadless Rule was the primary safeguard against industrial-scale harvesting of those lands.
The administration is also working with the Endangered Species Committee, which Rollins described as ‘hand in glove’ with the Roadless Rule repeal. President Trump signed an executive order this year requiring the committee to meet quarterly to consider the fate of threatened species that stand in the way of development, though the panel has not yet convened, according to Bloomberg Law.
Separate roadless rules apply to Colorado and Idaho and would not be affected by this federal rollback. The proposal now enters a public comment period before a final rule can be issued.
Sources: The Hill; Bloomberg Law; Forest Service press release; Center for Biological Diversity; AP News
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