Administration Takes Final Steps to Roll Back Roadless Rule with 30 Day Comment Period

The USDA announced today that it will open a 30-day public comment period as it moves forward to rescind the Roadless Rule, a longstanding policy that protects millions of acres of backcountry national forest land from new road building and large-scale logging. When finalized, the proposal will remove protections from 45 million acres of national forests across the country.

Roadless areas are some of the last undeveloped backcountry landscapes in our national forests, places where people hike, climb, bike, paddle, ski, hunt, and explore. The proposed rescission will roll back protections on more than 25,000 miles of trails, 10,000 climbing routes, nearly 1,000 miles of whitewater, and more than 10,000 miles of mountain biking.

As wildfires are increasingly affecting Americans across the country, especially in the West, rescinding the Roadless Rule increases the risk of new fire ignitions. Research shows that the majority of wildfires start near roads, and building new roads into roadless areas will increase the probability of new wildfires in these areas.

“The Roadless Rule has long provided a practical balance for managing backcountry national forests. It protects these landscapes from development while still allowing for active management and a wide array of recreation, including human-powered and motorized opportunities. Policies that successfully balance conservation, recreation, and management are rare, and the Roadless Rule is one of them. Rescinding the rule would undermine decades of successful land management and put some of the country’s best backcountry recreation at risk,” said Adam Cramer, CEO of Outdoor Alliance.

The Roadless Rule was established in 2001 after extensive public input; at the time, the rule set a record for the most public comments in support of an administrative rule ever.

The Roadless Rule protects the backcountry settings that make recreation possible. These include gems like Hyalite Canyon and the Gallatin River in Montana’s Custer Gallatin and Flathead National Forests, climbing in the Black Mountains and Linville Gorge in North Carolina, Spruce Knob Mountain in West Virginia, Mount Tallac and Eagle Lake Trail in the eastern Sierra in California, Tom Dick and Harry Mountain and Ramona Falls around Mount Hood, climbing and backcountry skiing in the Methow Valley, and alpine summits like Wyoming’s Franc’s Peak.

see a map of what's at stake

The current Draft Environmental Impact Statement is likely the final chance for the public to comment on a proposed project before the agency finalizes it. The 30-day comment period, starting this Thursday and ending September 20, is unusually short for a proposal of this scale. Most Draft Environmental Impact Statements are open for public comment for 60 to 90 days. Limiting public input on a proposal affecting 45 million acres of national forests leaves little time for communities, recreationists, and local stakeholders to weigh in. The proposal is part of a broader push to weaken long-standing protections for public lands and backcountry recreation.

In its press release, the USDA makes clear that it intends to ramp up timber development and road building on roadless areas, citing a number of executive orders on ramping up timber production as part of the reason they are rescinding the rule.

Without the Roadless Rule in place, backcountry forests could be opened to new road construction and industrial timber harvests that permanently change the recreation experience and the fundamental qualities of these landscapes.The outdoor community has successfully defended the Roadless Rule before, and public input is critical–even to prove to lawmakers and agencies that the rule has public support.

We’ve made it easy to submit a comment and contact your lawmakers in just a few minutes. Take action today: