The Trump administration moved on Tuesday to roll back an environmental rule that currently blocks road construction, and by extension most logging and mining activity, on tens of millions of acres of public forest land.
The so-called “roadless rule” was introduced by the Clinton administration and went into effect in 2001. It has been a flashpoint in the U.S. fight over economic development and wild land conservation, especially in Western states, for a quarter of a century.
“Our forests can’t afford another decade of inaction,” U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said in a statement. “It’s time to turn the page on the failed roadless rule and return our forests to health and productivity.”
The proposed change drew praise from Republican governors in Montana, Utah and Wyoming. Their comments appeared in the same USDA press release.
“Rescinding it restores the flexibility to make thoughtful decisions based on the needs of each forest and each community,” said Utah Gov. Spencer Cox. “We can protect the landscapes we treasure by actively managing them for the next generation.”
But supporters of the roadless rule say it emerged as a cornerstone of U.S. conservation policy, limiting industrial activity and preserving habitat on vast swaths of public forest and grassland from Alaska to Florida.
“The roadless rule protects some of the most valuable public lands that belong to all Americans,” said Drew Caputo, a senior attorney with the environmental group, Earthjustice. “It is the most important land protection measure of the last 60 years.”
While the Trump administration said the change would boost economic activity, supporters of the roadless policy said it helped end decades of unprofitable timber sales, managed by the Forest Service, that effectively subsidized private timber operations.
“Before the roadless rule, we would build roads into areas and we would have money-losing timber sales that would cost taxpayers billions of dollars,” said Steve Ellis, president of the non-partisan watchdog group, Taxpayers for Common Sense. “If you repeal this, it’s just going to add to an already $6 billion [U.S. Forest Service] road maintenance backlog.”
The 2020 Creek Fire burned large portions of the Sierra National Forest in California, federal land that falls under the “roadless rule.”
Marcio Jose Sanchez/AP
This rule change comes during a blistering summer season when Western states are once again battling massive wildfires. Administration officials said by rescinding the roadless rule they would also allow forest managers more flexibility to prevent and combat blazes.
“Across the country, we’ve watched preventable conditions – overgrown stands, insect outbreaks and disease – turn healthy landscapes into tinderboxes,” Rollins said in her statement.
Nick Smith, public affairs director with the logging industry group called the American Forest Resource Council, agreed that construction of more roads would give fire crews better access to remote areas hit hard by forest fires.
“We have seen what severe wildfire can do to roadless areas, whether it’s Oregon, Washington, California, Montana,” Smith said. “The roadless rule is an outdated, rigid, top-down one-size fits all policy that’s simply not up to the challenges that we’re facing in our forests today.”
But Caputo with Earth Justice pointed to research showing that more than 80% of wild land blazes are caused by human activity. He predicted that more backcountry roads could mean more big fires. “The chances of a thrown cigarette or a hot car engine igniting a fire go way up,” he said.
Low snowpack this year in the mountains has led to drought conditions and dry dangerous burning conditions, made worse by hot temperatures. Climate change is a contributing factor.
Public comment on this proposed change will be taken through September 21, 2026.
The move to end the roadless rule comes at a moment when the Trump administration has already succeeded in weakening other key environmental protections, with new limitations on enforcement of the Endangered Species Act and opening up national marine monuments in the Pacific Ocean to commercial fishing.
