Forest Service Proposes Repealing 2001 Roadless Rule on Tens of Millions of Forest Acres
The Facts
- The U.S. Forest Service filed a proposal on Tuesday to rescind the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule.
- The roadless rule prohibits road construction, logging and mining across roughly 44 to 45 million acres of national forest.
- The rule was adopted in the final days of Bill Clinton's presidency in 2001.
- USDA says rescinding the rule would move land-management authority to local national forest managers.
- Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said outdated restrictions kept forested acres off-limits to treatments that reduce wildfire risk.
- Most of the protected acreage lies in 10 Western states, including Alaska, California, Montana and Oregon.
- Environmental groups oppose the repeal, saying it would increase rather than reduce wildfire risk.
- The proposal is not final and is open to a 30-day public comment period, with comments due Sept. 21.
Context
What is the roadless rule?
The 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule bans road construction, road reconstruction and timber harvesting in undeveloped parts of the National Forest System WSJ,Oregon Live. By blocking road building, it also limits mining and oil and gas drilling in those areas Hill. Officials said 44 million acres of the 193-million-acre National Forest System are currently covered Hill,Hill.
Why does the administration say the repeal is needed?
USDA describes the rule as a one-size-fits-all restriction that has frustrated land managers and blocked wildfire risk-reduction work opb,Star,Washington Examiner. Officials also say repeal would spur economic growth, and note that roads can give firefighting crews access and serve as firebreaks Oregon Live,Detroit News. Reuters reported the U.S. is having one of its worst wildfire years, with 7.3 million acres burned Reuters.
What happens next?
USDA filed a draft environmental impact statement in the Federal Register on Tuesday, with publication set for Wednesday and comments due Sept. 21 Deseret News. Congress is separately considering legislation to make the change permanent, and development on Forest Service land would still require permits and environmental reviews Deseret News. Past attempts to overturn the rule through more than a dozen lawsuits were unsuccessful NYT.
Where Left and Right agree, and where they split
- Where Left and Right agree
- Both reads accept wildfire risk on these 44 to 45 million acres as a real stake, argue in the language of who bears the burden of justification, and treat the 30-day comment window as the only channel available.
- Where Left and Right split
- Whether the story is about a public inheritance whose protection should hold until the case for roads and logging is proven, or about a blanket rule overriding the managers nearest the fire.
How left and right read it
Land kept roadless since 2001 is a public inheritance, so the burden belongs to whoever wants it opened, not to the people defending it. Yet the case for rescinding protection across 44 to 45 million acres rests on a wildfire rationale that the conservation groups closest to these forests say gets the risk backwards — and the window to say so is 30 days. The default should hold. Why should the presumption now favor roads, logging and mining?
“But critics warned the plan puts nearly 45 million acres of pristine wilderness at risk of reckless development in the name of economic growth.” — HuffPost
A blanket prohibition written into the final days of a departing presidency should not be the permanent default for 44 to 45 million acres, because the burden of justification belongs to the rule, not to the managers closest to the ground. Rescission returns that authority to local forest managers and lifts restrictions Brooke Rollins says kept acres off-limits to wildfire-risk treatments; as the Forest Service notes, it "does not mandate timber cutting or road construction." Judgment should sit where the fire risk is, and a 30-day comment period is the place to make that case.
“This rescission removes national designation of roadless areas but does not mandate timber cutting or road construction, the Forest Service said.” — Washington Times
The receipts — all 77 sources
Wire services (7)
Independent coverage (50)
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