The Trump administration took a formal step Tuesday toward scrapping the Roadless Area Conservation Rule, a quarter-century-old protection covering millions of acres of undeveloped national forest.
The U.S. Forest Service filed a proposal to scrap the rule adopted in the final days of Bill Clinton’s presidency in 2001, describing it as a one-size-fits-all restriction that has frustrated land managers and blocked wildfire risk reduction.
Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said in a statement that “our forests can’t afford another decade of inaction,” pointing to overgrown stands, insect outbreaks and disease that have turned healthy landscapes into “tinderboxes.” said the move is intended to prioritize local agency decision-making over regulatory rules applied uniformly nationwide, regardless of specific land management needs.
The rule currently shields roughly 59 million acres, or about 30% of national forest lands nationwide, though USDA’s Tuesday release put the figure at more than 44 million acres of the 193-million-acre National Forest System.
The restrictions fall unevenly by state — covering nearly 60% of Forest Service land in Utah, 58% in Montana, and 92% of Alaska’s Tongass National Forest, the country’s largest.
By blocking road construction, the rule has also constrained mining and oil and gas drilling in these areas.
The move is far from the administration’s first attempt. Rollins first announced her intent to rescind the rule in June 2025, and USDA opened a public comment period that August — a process that drew criticism from Democratic lawmakers who called the timeline inadequate. Tuesday’s filing marks a further step toward finalizing the rescission, with the Forest Service now gathering additional public comment on the proposal.
Comments will be accepted until September 21.
Scientists caution against a simple wildfire-prevention narrative around the change. Worsening wildfires are driven by a combination of climate change that warms and dries out forests, decades of fire suppression that has allowed fuels to build up, and reduced logging.
The U.S. is having one of its worst wildfire years on record, with 7.3 million acres burned across roughly 49,000 fires as of August 17, a statistic the administration has cited as urgency for the rule change.
Environmental groups and Democratic lawmakers reject the wildfire justification entirely. Sierra Club’s Athan Manuel — cited elsewhere as Hicks — argued that “opening our backcountry forests to more roads and development, and therefore more ignitions, is also not a wildfire solution, and never will be.”
Senator Martin Heinrich was more pointed, noting that more than 80% of wildfires are started by humans within half a mile of a road, calling the rollback “a reckless giveaway to private interests that puts lives and our lands at risk.”
Attorney Kristin Gendzier of the Southern Environmental Law Center warned the proposal “will clear the way for reckless projects that can permanently scar these spectacular roadless landscapes”
and harm communities dependent on the forests for tourism and clean water.
Not all reaction has been critical — Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon welcomed the move, saying management of public lands closer to the people who live, work and play there has been a “steady drumbeat” of his time in office and that it reflects a commitment to locally-driven planning. The rescission is expected to face legal challenges from environmental groups once finalized.
