President Donald Trump’s administration on Tuesday proposed a rule change that would open 44 million acres of wild, undisturbed forest for road construction and logging.
Agriculture Secretary Advocates for Rescinding Roadless Rule
The Biden administration has proposed rescinding the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule, implemented during the final days of the Clinton presidency. This rule restricted development in extensive areas of public forests and grasslands designated as ‘inventoried roadless areas.’ Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, in her statement regarding this proposal, argued that the existing rule has hindered the Forest Service’s ability to perform essential management tasks aimed at preventing wildfires.
Rollins highlighted the consequences of the rule, stating, ‘Across the country, we’ve watched preventable conditions—overgrown stands, insect outbreaks, and disease—turn healthy landscapes into tinderboxes.’
“Trump is pushing for the largest evisceration of public lands protection in American history and against what Americans want,” said Randi Spivak, public lands policy director at the Center for Biological Diversity . The nonprofit described roadless areas in the Northern Rockies as “lifelines” for grizzly bears and lynx, adding that the proposal would also be disastrous for salmon streams and centuries-old Sitka spruce in the Tongass, the nation’s largest forest located in Alaska. Trump’s administration meanwhile is hostile towards any action to curb climate change, which is making wildfires more frequent and severe by driving hotter and drier conditions.
