The United States Department of Agriculture announced a plan on Monday, June 23, to revoke a decades-old rule that protects more than 58 million acres of national forests from road construction, mining, drilling and logging. The USDA, which oversees the U.S. Forest Service, plans to rescind the 2001 roadless rule, originally created to preserve wilderness across roughly 30% of the country’s national forests.
What Is the roadless rule?
Lawmakers enacted the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule during the final days of the Clinton administration. Lawmakers designed the rule to limit development in designated roadless areas across national forests. These areas span more than 40 states and territories and are home to critical wildlife habitats and vital sources of drinking water for millions of Americans.
Studies have shown that constructing roads can lead to harmful consequences, including disruption to habitats and ecosystems, as well as worsening erosion and polluting drinking water. The National Forest Service’s 2001 impact report on the policy found that national forests are a major source of drinking water for Americans and areas marked as roadless protect water sources for millions of people who rely on them.
However, USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins argued the rule is “outdated” and “overly restrictive.”
The Trump administration’s reasoning
Rollins noted that nearly 60% of the forests in Utah restrict road construction and argues the move puts the area at risk of fire because of officials’ inability to “properly manage” the forest. She also pointed to Montana, which she estimated has 58% of forest protected by the roadless rule and Alaska’s Tongass National Forest, where Rollins said 92% of forest is affected by the rule. The USDA secretary claims the rule hurts job growth and economic development.
“Once again, President Trump is removing absurd obstacles to common-sense management of our natural resources by rescinding the overly restrictive roadless rule. 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,” Rollins said in a statement.
In line with other actions
Rollins said the decision aligns with President Donald Trump’s executive order, “Unleashing Prosperity and Deregulation,” and supports efforts to expand mining, logging, and drilling on public lands. The president’s efforts also include a proposal in the Senate version of the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” that would lead to the sale of millions of acres of public land. Trump has argued these actions will eliminate costly regulations to American business and innovation, boost domestic timber supplies and result in greater energy independence.
The Trump administration claims of the 58.5 million acres covered by the roadless rule, 28 million are in places where the risk of wildfires is high. They contend revoking the rule will lead to better management of land at risk of fire through fewer restrictions on clearing out high-risk areas.
According to the USDA’s website, more than 40 states and territories have areas protected by the roadless rule.
Logging industry celebrates decision
The logging industry celebrated the plan.
“Our forests are extremely overgrown, overly dense, unhealthy, dead, dying and burning,” Scott Dane, executive director for the American Loggers Council, told The Washington Post.
Dane said on average, national forests have roughly 300 trunks per acre, but noted the ideal density should be around 75 trunks. Dane countered that critics are mischaracterizing Trump’s policies as opening federal forests to unchecked logging. He emphasized that the logging industry follows sustainable practices and still faces strict regulatory requirements.
“To allow access into these forests, like we used to prior to 2001 and for 100 years prior to that, will enable the forest managers to practice sustainable forest management,” Dane said.
Backlash from environmental groups
Environmental advocates criticized the USDA’s move.
“Secretary Rollins is taking a blowtorch to a landmark rule that shields almost 60 million acres of national forests from the serious impacts roads can have not only on wildlife and their habitats but also on the nation’s drinking water sources,” Vera Smith, the director of the national forests and public lands program at the nonprofit Defenders of Wildlife, said in a statement.
Conservation campaigns director at the nonprofit Wilderness Society, Josh Hicks, called the rule “remarkably successful at protecting the nation’s forests from mining, logging and roadbuilding for nearly 25 years.”
“Any attempt to revoke it is an attack on the air and water we breathe and drink, abundant recreational opportunities which millions of people enjoy each year, havens for wildlife and critical buffers for communities threatened by increasingly severe wildfire season,” Hicks said.
Pushback on wildfire claims
Critics of the USDA’s decision also disagree that revoking the rule will decrease wildfire risk.
“It’s ridiculous for Secretary Rollins to spin this as a move that will reduce wildfire risk or improve recreation,” Rachael Hamby, a policy director with the Center for Western Priorities, said in a statement. “Commercial logging exacerbates climate change, increasing the intensity of wildfires. This is nothing more than a massive giveaway to timber companies at the expense of every American and forests that belong to all of us.”
Drew McConville, a senior fellow with the Center for American Progress, accused the Trump administration of being “dead set on liquidating our public lands as quickly as possible.”
“Under the guise of wildfire prevention, this action would shamelessly offer up some of our most treasured national forests for drilling, mining, and timber,” McConville said. “It should be clear by now to President Trump that American people do not want their forests and parks sold out to the highest bidder.”
Chris Wood, one of the people who helped develop the roadless rule when he worked at the Forest Service, said the rule is “one of the most significant and popular conservation achievements in the history of the United States.”
Gifford Pinchot, the first chief of the Forest Service, once described it 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,” Wood told The Los Angeles Times.
