Viewpoint: Roadless rule essential piece of Montana values

Hannah Niknonow

Humans are really good at building roads. Across our National Forests, roads connect us to some of the best hiking, foraging, hunting, and fishing spots in the country. Sportsmen and women rely on this network to reach the quiet refuges that lie between roaded areas—the wild pockets where we seek fur, fin, and feather on the public lands system.

In today’s loud, fast-moving world, those remaining roadless places are rare, and generations of hunters and anglers have spoken up, voted, and fought to protect them. Now it’s time to do so again.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s current proposal to roll back the Roadless Rule threatens more than 6 million acres of Montana’s national forests. As Montanans, we know these roadless areas are some of the last and best places to find solitude, clean water, and abundant wildlife.

Enacted in 2001 under the George W. Bush administration, the Roadless Rule strikes a careful balance between forest management and conservation. It ensures that roads already on the landscape continue to provide access for forest management, including thinning to reduce wildfire risk and improve forest health and habitat for wildlife.

At the same time, it safeguards select areas from new road construction, preventing the unchecked carving up of intact backcountry. This balance has allowed both active forest management and the preservation of remote, unfragmented habitat.

Roads are not without cost. They invite human-caused wildfires, noxious weeds, displace wildlife, and degrade streams. Montana needs places where we can drive a rig to a trailhead or fishing hole, and we also need places where the only way in is by our own power. The Roadless Rule ensures we have both.

For hunters, anglers, and all who value Montana’s wild character, keeping the Roadless Rule intact is essential.

Hannah Niknonow is with Hellgate Hunters and Anglers