Trump administration wants to rescind 'Roadless Rule'; changes could threaten millions of acres of protected land

Kootenai National Forest in Montana is used as a conservation site for grizzly bears. Certain parts of the forest are designated growing areas for bear foods such as salmonberries and thimbleberries. Up in Alaska breathes “the northern lung of the planet,” or the Tongass National Forest, the biggest in the United States.

Both of these forests are protected under what's known as the Roadless Rule, a 2001 ruling protecting land, often without roads, from further development, reports Ilana Newman for The Daily Yonder. In August, the Trump Administration filed a proposed rule and draft environmental impact statement to rescind the Roadless Rule. Many people in rural communities say the Roadless Rule protects their economy and way of life. 

The ruling applies to 59 million acres of public land, spanning the Western U.S. and Alaska to New England and Appalachia. The Roadless Rule protects lands without roads, but “there are plenty of primitive roads in what is known as inventoried roadless areas, or the land that is protected by the Roadless Rule,” Newman writes. “What the Roadless Rule does is prevent any additional development, road building, or logging in those areas.”

As of Aug. 18, the filing of the proposed rule opened a 30-day public comment period. Rescinding the ruling would allow local hands to better manage forests for wildfire risk, according to Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins.

Many rural commenters from Alaska, Appalachia, Montana, New Mexico and Washington disagree. Forests such as the Kootenai and Tongass are threatened by logging and loss of conservation land. Locals in Washington cite concerns of fires igniting adjacent to roads; and in parts of Appalachia, drinking water could be contaminated by roads built on inventoried land. In New Mexico, rescinding the rule raises fear of opportunities for exploitative mining.