A proposal by the U.S. Forest Service to eliminate protections from roadless areas — which include places like the popular Heather/Maple Pass Loop — has sparked exceptional levels of pushback from conservationists and outdoors enthusiasts across the country.
Forest Service action could cause severe damage, critics say
The U.S. Forest Service is proposing to eliminate the Roadless Area Conservation Rule, which has protected 44.7 million acres — 30% of all national forestlands — across the county from roadbuilding for 25 years. The proposal is open for public comment until Sept. 21
The Forest Service is promoting repeal of the rule as a means of reducing wildfire risk. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins called the rule “a one-size-fits-all restriction that has frustrated land managers and served as a barrier to wildfire risk reduction work across large swaths of America’s national forests” when she announced plans last week to rescind the rule.
“For too long, outdated restrictions have kept tens of millions of forested acres off-limits to the very treatments that improve forest health and reduce wildfire risk to our communities,” Rollins said. The plan would give authority to local forest managers to implement actions they believe would benefit the forests.
Reaction from conservation and outdoor-enthusiast groups to plans to scrap the rule was immediate and fierce. The Forest Service solicited initial input on the proposal last year, and 97% of the more than 600,000 public comments opposed revoking the rule.
“Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins and the Trump administration are trying to spin a move to subsidize the timber industry as a wildfire-mitigation strategy, but the government’s own study shows repealing the roadless rule could actually increase wildfire risk as well as have shocking negative impacts on western communities,” Center for Western Priorities Communications Director Kate Groetzinger said.
Groetzinger also pointed to research by government scientists that found that repealing the rule could harm hundreds of species at risk of extinction, decrease the quality of drinking water, and negatively affect communities that rely on tourism dollars.
The Methow Valley Citizens Council (MVCC) noted that the rule protects about 2 million acres in Washington alone, including Cutthroat Lake and Maple Pass on the North Cascades Highway corridor and significant portions of the Sawtooth range.
Moreover, removing roadless protections is not the same thing as preventing wildfire, MVCC said. The existing rule allows exceptions for some road construction and timber harvest to reduce wildfire risk, MVCC said.
A 2007 study by the Winthrop-based Pacific Biodiversity Institute found that 95% of all fires occurred within 1/2 mile of a road and that 88% were human-caused. Fewer than 3% of all wildfires start in wilderness or backcountry areas, the study found.
An analysis of four decades of satellite data published in the Social Science Research Network determined that inventoried roadless areas have not burned at significantly higher rates or severity than roaded national forest lands. In the most recent decade, roadless areas burned at a slightly lower rate than forests with roads, the researchers found.
Conservation and outdoors groups were quick to criticize the proposal. Backcountry Hunters & Anglers “vehemently opposes the direct threat rescission would pose to some of the country’s most productive hunting and fishing habitat and to the taxpayers and rural communities who would bear the cost.”
“The rule provides quality habitat for big game, keeps trout streams cold and clean, and keeps taxpayers from footing the bill for thousands of miles of new roads that the Forest Service can’t afford to maintain,” Backcountry Hunters & Anglers said.
The Forest Service is already facing a severe backlog in road maintenance, which would only be exacerbated by adding more road miles, Taxpayers for Common Sense said.
Logging
Rescinding the rule is in line with executive orders issued by Pres. Donald Trump, including “Immediate Expansion of American Timber Production” and “Unleashing Prosperity Through Deregulation,” Secretary Rollins said.
Reference to the executive orders prompted conservation groups and forest ecologists to question whether the real goal of the rescission is to allow more logging in national forests. Trump’s March 2025 executive order regarding expansion of timber production eliminates some environmental review of logging and forestry projects and reduces opportunities for appeal, including for violations of the Endangered Species Act. Litigation over the presence of endangered wildlife has often delayed or derailed timber projects.
The American Forest Resource Council (AFRC) hailed the proposal. “The Forest Service is right to take a hard look at a policy that was written for forest conditions that looked very different 25 years ago,” AFRC President Travis Joseph said. “Our national forests are experiencing severe wildfire, drought, insects and disease on a scale that few anticipated when the Roadless Rule was adopted.” AFRC is a regional trade association representing forest-product businesses and forest landowners who advocate for sustained-yield timber harvests on public timberlands throughout the west to enhance forest health and resistance to fire, insects and disease.
Protected areas in western states
More than 95% of inventoried roadless areas are in 10 western states, including Washington. The proposed changes would not apply in Colorado and Idaho because they have separate, state-specific regulations that govern more than 13 million acres, according to the Forest Service.
While they are referred to as “roadless” areas, there were already some primitive roads in these areas when the 2001 rule prohibiting road construction was passed, according to the Forest Service.
The governors of Montana, Wyoming and Utah hailed the Forest Service proposal for eliminating what Utah Gov. Spencer Cox called a “one-size-fits-all federal policy.” Rescinding the rules “restores the flexibility to make thoughtful decisions based on the needs of each forest and each community,” he said.
Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte said the proposal would “[restore] common sense to active forest management…. Today’s long-overdue decision will empower states like Montana to pursue proper forest management on federal lands with local communities in mind,” he said.
Environmental impacts
The Forest Service’s 333-page draft environmental impact statement (DEIS) on the proposal analyzes three alternatives — complete repeal of the rule, modification of the rule, and no action — maintaining the existing rule that protects roadless areas.
Modification would remove roadless designations on 31.7 million acres, rather than all 44.7 million, primarily affecting areas where mapping errors and road construction occurred as the rule was being finalized and during subsequent litigation, according to the DEIS.
Research by a professor of aquatic and fishery science at the University of Washington (UW) found that the rule protects more than 80,000 miles of rivers in the continental U.S. that supply water to more than 25 million people. Forested lands provide higher quality water because soil microbes and plant roots filter contaminants before water arrives at treatment facilities, the research found.
The DEIS acknowledges some of the impacts raised by opponents of repeal. “Impacts from road construction and timber harvest activities could include: increased fire frequency (human-caused)… sedimentation and impacts to water quality;… adverse impacts to threatened, endangered, or sensitive wildlife and plants;… or economic losses related to recreation or non-commodity values of roadless areas,” the DEIS says. Potential adverse effects could be reduced or mitigated by existing land management plans and individual project design, it says.
Activities already permitted in roadless areas include constructing or maintaining motorized and non-motorized trails; hunting, fishing, hiking and camping; and prescribed burning and grazing livestock, as long as they don’t entail construction of new roads, according to the DEIS.
The Outdoor Recreation Roundtable Association, which represents the outdoor-recreation economy, encouraged the Forest Service to reform the rule rather than scrap it altogether. “As we outlined to the administration since last year, reform, not repeal, is the right path. ORR’s members, motorized and nonmotorized alike, have united around increasing public lands and water access, infrastructure, and funding, while also prioritizing conservation and sustainable management,” the roundtable said.
Some people criticized the Forest Service for a rushed process that allocates just 30 days for public comment. The original rule was the outcome of a two-year undertaking with more than 600 public hearings across the country and 1.6 million public comments, the Center for Economic and Policy Research said.
Information about the proposed changes and links to documents and an interactive Forest Service map that shows areas protected by the rule is at https://www.fs.usda.gov/managing-land/planning/roadless. There is also a link there to comment on the proposal.
Comments are due on Monday, Sept. 21.
