Yesterday, Secretary Rollins announced the USDA’s plans to rescind the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule. This decision would unlock 30% of the National Forest System, enabling common-sense forest management practices to strengthen the health and productivity of America’s forests.

For nearly 25 years, this rule has frustrated land managers and served as a barrier to action – prohibiting road construction, which has limited wildfire suppression and timber harvesting on nearly 60 million acres. Including Wilderness designations, the acreage amounts to nearly half of our national forests and grasslands.  

Since 2001, we’ve seen more than 8 million acres of Roadless Areas burn. To put that into perspective, the average acreage lost to wildfire each year has more than doubled since the rule’s inception. Instead of protecting our forests, the rule has trapped them in a cycle of neglect and devastation.

That can’t continue.

The forests we know today are not the same as the forests of 2001. They are dangerously overstocked and increasingly threatened by drought, insect-born disease, and wildfire. It’s time to turn the page on the Roadless Rule and return land management decisions where they belong – with local Forest Service experts who best understand their forests and communities.

I applaud Secretary Rollins for taking decisive action to provide us with the tools and decision space we need to truly care for our forests and, in turn, protect the people and communities we serve.

Let's seize this opportunity to build a stronger, safer future for our forests and the communities that depend on these forests for jobs, recreation, and clean water.

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