Treelines

Rescinding the Clinton-era rule would allow road construction, logging, and mineral extraction on more public lands.

The US Forest Service moved on Tuesday to rescind a rule that has prevented road development, logging, and mining in 45 million acres of public lands for the past 25 years.

The agency plans to scrap the Roadless Area Conservation Rule, which was adopted in January 2001 during the final weeks of the Clinton administration. It was meant to implement lasting protections for undeveloped lands.

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said in Tuesday’s announcement that eliminating the roadless rule would allow land managers to more easily maintain wilderness areas and mitigate insect outbreaks, diseases, and wildfires. However, the regulatory change also aligns with a May 2025 executive order that directs Rollins and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum to find ways to increase timber production by eliminating federal red tape as well as a January 2025 executive order for the secretaries to reassess any public land withdrawals that limit mining and mineral processing.

In a Federal Register notice, Trump administration officials said that rescinding the rule will allow local site-specific decisions, including decisions to allow timber harvesting. They said that the USFS’ forest management activities have become more adaptive, science-based, efficient, and effective over the past quarter century, and they noted that local decisions would remain constrained by requirements under the Endangered Species Act and National Forest Management Act.

The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) said that the roadless rule has been the country’s most successful land conservation policy and the proposed change would allow commercial loggers and drillers to irreversibly damage wild lands and waterways. The NRDC had supported the 2001 rule, and it vowed to fight the proposed reversal.

The Trump administration’s move may run into broader public opposition as well. After the US Department of Agriculture announced last year its intent to eliminate the roadless rule, Pew Charitable Trusts commissioned a poll of 1,200 likely voters for their opinions on the restrictions.

Pew reported early this year that 76 percent of survey respondents support the roadless rule compared to 13 percent who oppose it. Even among those who voted for Donald Trump, 72 percent favor prohibitions on expanded timber harvesting in national forests and other roadless lands.

In addition, many of the public lands affected by the 2001 rule are already prized for recreational uses. The Outdoor Alliance, a nonprofit organization that promotes the protection and sustainable recreational use of public lands, noted that examples of those backcountry lands include Montana’s Hyalite Canyon and Gallatin River, the Black Mountains in North Carolina, and Eagle Lake Trail in California’s eastern Sierra, among others.

Outdoor Alliance said that rescinding the roadless rule would eliminate protections for vast areas that are used for hiking, climbing, and skiing, among other activities. The roadless rule has been defended in previous years, though, and public input is critical to showing lawmakers and agencies that it retains support.

“The Roadless Rule protects the backcountry settings that make recreation possible,” it said.

In the Federal Register notice, the USFS acknowledges that rescinding the roadless rule could result in noise, visible infrastructure, and temporary closures in areas used by recreational visitors.

“In the longer term, developed and road-based recreation could expand through development of some new permanent roads, though this expansion is uncertain and anticipated to be limited due to land management plans, budget, and resources,” it said. “This expansion could increase road-based recreation and accessibility improvements but would result in tradeoffs with opportunities for quiet, remote, and self-reliant recreation and may increase user conflicts and result in lost economic benefits.”

The notice states that rescinding the roadless rule will have uncertain economic effects, with potential gains by lumber industries and losses among recreational industries, among other impacts. Opening 4.8 million acres to timber harvest could provide the federal government with an increase in annual revenues in the range of $5.2 million to $11.4 million and give the timber industry increased annual revenues in the range of $4.6 million to $10.6 million.

The agency noted, though, that it is difficult to predict how much difference the rule rescission will make on timber harvesting, especially in light of road construction costs, maintenance funding gaps, and a $6.9 billion deferred maintenance backlog for roads and bridges.

The recreation industry, meanwhile, could also lose an estimated $6.1 million in yearly revenues.