In 2001, the Clinton administration finalized a lengthy rulemaking process to protect roadless areas in America’s national forests from road-building and associated development. About 58 million acres of wildlands were covered under the Roadless Area Conservation Rule, which have mostly been kept free of road construction, logging, and other types of development.
In late August, however, Trump’s Agriculture Department, which oversees the Forest Service, announced that it would rescind the Roadless Rule, and it initiated the rescission process with an unusually short 21-day comment period.
National forest roadless areas in Idaho and Colorado received overall lesser protections via separate state-based rules and are not part of this current repeal attempt; however, 44.7 million acres of roadless areas on national forests could be opened to logging, mining, road-building, and development as part of the Trump administration’s efforts.
Roadless areas on national forests provide secure habitat for wildlife, and offer excellent recreation opportunities for camping, hiking, hunting, and more. Because many roadless areas abut designated Wildernesses, they also protect and enhance the value of those Wildernesses by keeping road-building and development farther away from Wilderness. And in the future, Congress may look to roadless areas for possible future wilderness designations.
Unfortunately, the 2001 Roadless Rule is not nearly protective enough. It contains numerous loopholes that allow some road-building, logging, and development under certain circumstances. Rather than repeal the 2001 Roadless Rule, it should be strengthened and these loopholes eliminated.
Scoping, the first step in the process, closes Friday, September 19. It’s important that as many people as possible submit comments opposing the proposed rescission from the outset. Use any or all of the following talking points, but please also speak in your own words about the importance of roadless areas.
Feel free to use the following points in your comment:
• I oppose rescinding the Roadless Area Conservation Rule. It has helped protect roadless areas, and adjacent Wilderness lands, on national forests for nearly a quarter-century.
• If anything is done with the Roadless Area Conservation Rule, it should be strengthened to eliminate the loopholes and provide better protection.
• Roads fragment wildlife habitat. Existing roadless areas provide habitat for many threatened and endangered species. Roadless areas also provide important migration corridors.
• Roads threaten high-quality streams and rivers in these areas. Dirt and sediment that runs off roads impairs habitat for fish and aquatic wildlife. Roads built in steep, rugged country are at increased risk of landslides that suffocate streams and rivers with mounds of mud.
• More roads will result in more human-caused fires in the backcountry. Research shows that more than 60 percent of human-caused fires on national forests in the Lower 48 states are ignited within 1/8-mile of the nearest road, and 95 percent are ignited within 1/2-mile. • Roadless areas provide opportunities for outdoor recreation, including camping, hiking and backpacking, hunting and angling, wildlife viewing and photography, and other activities. Large sections of the Continental Divide, Pacific Crest, and Appalachian National Trails cross protected roadless areas. • The Forest Service already has a huge road system, stretching 380,000 miles, which is longer than the country’s highways. This existing Forest Service road system currently has an estimated maintenance backlog of over $8.6 billion.
