Trump’s elimination of roadless rule concerns conservationists
Laura Lundquist
(Missoula Current) Less than two weeks have passed since the public learned of a Senate proposal to sell off public lands, and now, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has removed roadless protections for more than 58 million acres of federal land across the nation.
On Monday, during a meeting of the Western Governors Association, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke L. Rollins announced she was rescinding the 2001 Roadless Rule. The Roadless Rule prohibits logging projects and road construction or reconstruction to provide protection for wildlife and ecosystems in inventoried roadless areas that remain.
The USDA press release said rescinding the rule aligns with President Trump’s Executive Order 14192, Unleashing Prosperity Through Deregulation, to get rid of “burdensome barriers that hamper American business and innovation.” It also said Rollins’ intent was to build more roads to aid in wildfire management and allow more decisions to be made at the local level.
"Once again, President Trump is removing absurd obstacles to common sense management of our natural resources by rescinding the overly restrictive roadless rule,” Rollins said in the release. “This move opens a new era of consistency and sustainability for our nation’s forests. It is abundantly clear that properly managing our forests preserves them from devastating fires and allows future generations of Americans to enjoy and reap the benefits of this great land.”
Gary Ingman of Helena Hunters and Anglers heard the news Monday evening when his organization decided to call an emergency meeting for Tuesday to discuss the implications of the announcement. If roadless areas were truly gone, the group might not continue their yearly monitoring of roadless areas.
Montana has almost 6.4 million acres of inventoried roadless areas, including in the Crazy Mountains, the Beartooth Mountains and the Gallatin and Bitterroot ranges, according to a U.S. Forest Service summary. Only two other states have more: Idaho with 9.3 million acres and Alaska with 14.7 million. Those three states are also the ones with the most abundant and varied wildlife populations.
Helena Hunters and Anglers has been monitoring some of those roadless areas for the past few years to assess their condition, and some of the findings aren’t good. Where private property borders the areas, some landowners have gone into the roadless areas to cut timber and create their own ATV access roads. Where such infractions have been found, Helena Hunters and Anglers has reported them to the Forest Service but there’s usually no enforcement, Ingman said.
“We’re trying to make sure the (Forest Service) travel plans are upheld, and in many cases, they’re not. Almost half of the Helena-Lewis and Clark National Forest is inventoried roadless but the employees don’t know what the restrictions are. So citizen groups are stepping up to do their own reporting on the condition of these resources, trying to help the agencies do their job in the absence of funding and the loss of employees,” Ingman said. “These roadless areas are so important to wolverines, lynx, grizzly bears and so many sensitive species. These are the last refuges. They’re also the remaining stepping stones for genetic transfer between isolated wildlife populations. Movement along the Continental Divide is so critical, and we’re trying to protect that.”
A number of other conservation organizations immediately criticized the action, calling it another handout to corporations to the detriment of the American public and future generations. The Colorado-based Center for Western Priorities said Rollins’ reasons were suspect.
“It’s ridiculous for Secretary Rollins to spin this as a move that will reduce wildfire risk or improve recreation,” said Rachael Hamby, Center for Western Priorities Policy Director. “This is nothing more than a massive giveaway to timber companies at the expense of every American and the forests that belong to all of us.”
The Center for Biological Diversity said that instead of helping to manage fires, eliminating the rule would actually lead to more fires. The Wilderness Society recently looked at wildfire data from 1992 to 2024 and found that wildfires are nearly four times more likely to start in forest areas that have roads, in comparison with roadless areas. Their research paper, which is going through the peer-review process, concluded that “building roads into roadless areas is likely to result in more fires.”
Researchers estimate that 85% to 94% of all wildfires are human-caused.
"Stripping protections from these last unfragmented national forests risks our drinking water, plants, animals and some of America's most beautiful wild places," said Randi Spivak, public lands policy director at the Center for Biological Diversity. "It's a prescription for more wildfires so logging companies can make a buck. The roadless rule is one of our country's most important conservation achievements and we'll fight like hell to keep these protections in place.”
The Forest Service proposed the roadless rule in 2000 toward the end of the Clinton administration. During more than 600 public hearings nationwide, the public provided more than 1.6 million comments in favor of adopting the rule.
The rule was proposed partly to stem the growing backlog of costs associated with maintaining more than 386,000 miles of roads across the national forest system. So rescinding the rule doesn’t appear to coincide with Trump’s main agenda of cutting government costs.
In 2000, the Forest Service hosted 31 public meetings in Montana during the 15-month public process and received comments from almost 16,000 Montanans, 78% of which supported the proposal. Ingman was one of the people who testified in favor.
“Montanans overwhelmingly supported the Roadless Rule then, and we still do,” said Wild Montana Deputy Director Kayje Booker. “Montana’s congressional delegation needs to use their influence to stop this corporate handout and defend the places that belong to all of us. Anything less is failure to honor Montanans’ overwhelming desire to protect our public lands.”
The rule was challenged in court but has been upheld at both the district and appellate levels. But the first Trump administration weakened the rule, and in October 2020, the administration removed roadless protections for more than 9 million acres of the Tongass National Forest, threatening old-growth forest and southeast Alaska’s tourism and fishing economies. The protections in the Tongass were restored under the Biden administration. But the Rule was obviously vulnerable and some, such as Senator Maria Cantwell, D-WA, have proposed bills to mandate roadless area protections but none have passed.
In the meantime, the Roadless Rule has become an effective and popular mechanism for conserving important backcountry fish and wildlife habitat, said Chris Wood, Trout Unlimited CEO. Plus, the 2001 Roadless Rule already allows for forest management activities, including timber harvest, to reduce the risk of uncharacteristic wildfire, as well as to restore habitat for sensitive fish and wildlife species.
“Roadless areas are sources of clean water and some of the best hunting and fishing opportunities on the planet,” Wood said in a release. “Gifford Pinchot, the first chief of the Forest Service, once described conservation as ‘the application of common sense to common problems for the common good.’ Let’s hope common sense prevails and the Administration reconsiders its proposal.”
Rollins’ announcement rescinding the rule did not mention a public comment period – the law normally requires one for such changes to policy and land management rules. So groups are unsure of where the Roadless Rule stands now.
Drew Caputo of Earthjustice noted that Rollins’ announcement follows Trump's March Executive Order to expand timber production by 25% and a Secretarial Memo issued by Rollins in April to conduct an “Emergency Situation Determination” related to wildfire risk in the National Forestry System. The three actions have been done “so timber industry can make huge money from unrestrained logging,” Caputo said. Rescinding the Rule would also open these areas to mining and oil and gas development.
“If the Trump administration actually revokes the roadless rule, we’ll see them in court,” Caputo said.
Contact reporter Laura Lundquist at lundquist@missoulacurrent.com.