Trump Administration Guts 25-Year-Old Roadless Rule, Opening Roughly One-Third of National Forests to Logging and Drilling

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Department of Agriculture today released a proposed rule to rescind the Roadless Area Conservation Rule, opening a 30-day public comment period on a proposal that would strip protections from nearly 45 million acres of national forest, roughly one-third of the National Forest System.

Following is a statement from Andrew Wetzler, senior vice president for nature at NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council):

“The Trump administration is moving to gut our most iconic national forests by giving loggers and drillers free rein to turn them into industrial wastelands. It is trying to walk away from the most successful land conservation policy in modern U.S. history. The American people will not let this plan stand.

“Twenty-five years ago, NRDC worked to establish the roadless rule because Americans, across every political stripe, told the Forest Service they wanted the last wild corners of their national forests kept wild. For more than two decades this rule has successfully delivered on that promise. 

“These are the places where grizzlies raise their cubs, where trout streams run cold, and where more than 25 million Americans get their clean drinking water. Once we cut a road through these forests, we don't get their values back. The forest fragments. The streams and rivers are degraded by runoff. Iconic wildlife struggles to find suitable habitat. And we get stuck with even more roads in a vast network the agency already can’t maintain.

“The public made itself heard on this rule again and again, in comment after comment, poll after poll. But the Trump administration is choosing not to listen. We are going to make sure that decision does not stand.”

Background:

• The Roadless Area Conservation Rule, adopted in 2001, protects 58.5 million acres of Inventoried Roadless Areas from new road construction, commercial logging, and most extractive development.
• 76 percent of likely voters support the Roadless Rule, according to 2025 polling, with majority support cutting across party lines.
• Roughly 25 percent of animal species and 13 percent of plant species listed as endangered in the United States have habitat within roadless areas.
• Forests provide drinking water to 180 million Americans; roadless areas include 354 municipal watersheds.
• The Forest Service already maintains roughly 380,000 miles of forest roads and carries a $6.4 billion road maintenance backlog.

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NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council) is an international nonprofit environmental organization with more than 3 million members and online activists. Established in 1970, NRDC uses science, policy, law and people power to confront the climate crisis, protect public health and safeguard nature. NRDC has offices in New York City, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Beijing and Delhi (an office of NRDC India Pvt. Ltd).