Defenders Joins Conservationists In Blasting Federal Proposal to Bulldoze Forestlands

Conservation groups today called a plan by the Trump administration to rescind the U.S. Forest Service’s Roadless Area Conversation Rule an alarming threat to national forests that are overwhelmingly loved by Americans.

Enacted in 2001 with broad bipartisan support, the Roadless Rule protects 45 million acres of national forests. These are among the nation’s last-remaining, undisturbed wildlands, providing safe habitat for at-risk wildlife, clean drinking water for millions of Americans and abundant outdoor recreation opportunities across the country.

The proposed rule and DEIS seek to fully rescind the rule, a bedrock conservation measure. The administration has falsely claimed this is a solution to the wildfire crisis.

Fires don’t start without cause, and according to the Forest Service, nine out of 10 wildfires are caused by people. New science builds on this, finding that fires are four times more likely to start near a road than in roadless forests. That’s because more roads also mean more people with cigarettes thrown out car windows, abandoned campfires and hot under-carriages of cars igniting tall dry grass – inviting more wildfire at a time when federal fire-fighting capacity has been radically reduced.  

The public will have 30 days to comment on the DEIS. This will be the last opportunity for the public to weigh in before the rescission is finalized.

Since U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins announced in June 2025 that the Forest Service would rescind this rule, there has been a major public backlash, with more than 625,000 comments flooding the agency to oppose the rollback and a wide variety of people and organizations, including former Forest Service chiefs, voicing opposition. In recent months, people’s hearings were organized nationwide in reaction to the Forest Service’s refusal to hold even a single public hearing.

Organizations issued the following statements in response to the rule and DEIS:

“The Roadless Rule was hands-down one of the Forest Service’s best ideas — rescinding it is without question one of its worst,” said Vera Smith, director of national forests and public lands program at Defenders of Wildlife. “The rule is a big reason why national forests continue to serve as important habitats for our wildlife and losing it would be a major loss for all the species that call these areas home.”  

“For 25 years, the Roadless Rule has kept our wildest forests intact. The benefits have been incalculable for people, for water, for wildlife and for the climate,” said Abigail Dillen, president of Earthjustice. “Now, the Trump administration wants to gut the rule and open up 45 million acres of roadless forest to clear-cutting and other harmful development enabled by roading. Scientists, wildland firefighters and hundreds of thousands of Americans have fiercely opposed this attack on our public lands.  Earthjustice has successfully defended the Roadless Rule for a quarter century, and we are not going to stop now.”

“America’s last great backcountry forests are not bargaining chips,” said Emma Powell, government affairs manager at Alaska Wilderness League. “The Tongass and Chugach National Forests are global treasures, home to thriving salmon runs, abundant wildlife, outdoor enthusiasts from all over our nation and communities whose cultures and livelihoods are deeply tied to healthy, intact forests. From fisheries to tourism and outdoor recreation, these landscapes also support thousands of jobs and generate billions in economic activity each year. Rescinding Roadless Rule protections puts these irreplaceable public lands at risk.” 

"Roadless forests supply clean drinking water for tens of millions of Americans, are home to irreplaceable wildlife and store enormous amounts of carbon,” said Gabrielle Berthel, forest advocate at Natural Resources Defense Council. "Repealing the Roadless Area Conservation Rule would allow for the fragmentation of some of the last intact forest ecosystems in the country, with irreversible consequences for the communities that rely on these forests and the people who seek out these special places for recreation. These are public forests on public lands. The Forest Service has a duty to listen to every person who depends on and appreciates these forests."

“Americans cherish their public lands and deserve leaders who protect them now and for future generations. Gutting the Roadless Area Conservation Rule is simply not an option – too many communities, ecosystems, wildlife species and local economies depend on keeping these wild forests healthy and undisturbed,” said Josh Hicks, director of conservation campaigns at The Wilderness Society. “Opening our backcountry forests to more roads and development, and therefore more ignitions, is also not a wildfire solution, and never will be. The administration needs to hear us loud and clear: our roadless forests are some of the most important ecosystems across this country and must be managed as such.”  

“The Roadless Area Conservation Rule is the only thing preventing much of our wildest remaining national forests from industrial development,” said Alex Craven, forest campaign manager at Sierra Club. These forests offer critical habitat for wildlife; provide clean, fresh air and water for millions and contain vast swaths of the last remaining old-growth forests in the country. For more than two decades, the Roadless Rule has protected the heart of our public lands, saved taxpayer dollars and enjoyed overwhelming popularity with the general public. Once again, Donald Trump is showing he is eager to throw away a successful, commonsense policy, while offering nothing but baseless justifications for doing so.”

“Just as Americans are spending time outside in our public lands this summer, the Forest Service is proposing to open our wild forests to logging and new roads,” said Ellen Montgomery, great outdoors campaign director at Environment America. “We should be celebrating nature and protecting our remaining intact forests, not removing decades-old protections. We call on all Americans to submit public comments and to ask the Forest Service to keep our wild forests wild.”

"The Tongass National Forest is the world’s largest remaining temperate rainforest and one of our greatest defenses against the escalating climate and biodiversity polycrisis because of its unfragmented old-growth stands and critical habitat for keystone species," said Osprey Orielle Lake, executive director at Women’s Earth and Climate Action Network. "If the Roadless Rule is rescinded in the Tongass, industrial logging and mining will accelerate climate chaos, destroy ecological integrity and threaten public wellbeing. The planned rulemaking to rescind the Roadless Rule in the Tongass is a threat to Indigenous rights and sovereignty, and local economies in Alaska that rely on a healthy, intact Tongass Rainforest. WECAN stands with Indigenous women of the Tongass and people across the country to call for “No Action” on the Roadless Rule to defend communities, the climate and our future!”
 

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