Research & Developments is a blog for brief updates that provide context for the flurry of news regarding law and policy changes that impact science and scientists today.
The U.S. Forest Service has moved forward with a rule to withdraw protections from 45 million acres of pristine national forests by rescinding the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) first announced its intent to rescind the Roadless Rule in June 2025 and it has now taken the next step to do so.
In today’s announcement, Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins claimed that the Roadless Rule increases wildfire risk by preventing land managers from maintaining national forests.
“For too long, outdated restrictions have kept tens of millions of forested acres off-limits to the very treatments that improve forest health and reduce wildfire risk to our communities,” Rollins said in a statement. “Today, we filed a proposal to restore authority to local forest managers who know the land best, removing the barriers that have kept them from doing the work the land demands. It’s time to turn the page on the failed roadless rule and return our forests to health and productivity.”
However, this justification is not backed up by data. Research has shown that nearly 85% of wildland fires begin with human activity, either accidentally or deliberately. What’s more, human-caused fires are much more destructive than naturally-caused fires from, for example, lighting strikes. Building roads would bring more people into former wildlands, thereby increasing wildfire risk despite the increased access for maintenance, several forest experts told the New York Times.
The Trump Administration “is trying to walk away from the most successful land conservation policy in modern U.S. history.”
“The truth is that roadless forests are our greatest defense against wildfire,” David Jenkins, president of the nonprofit Conservatives for Responsible Stewardship, said in a media statement. “Not only are old growth forests naturally resistant to fire, but 90% of all wildfires in the U.S. occur within a half mile of a road. Any claims to the contrary are demonstrably false.”
More than 95% of inventoried roadless areas are in 10 Western states: Alaska, Arizona, California, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming. The proposed rule does not apply to national forests in Colorado and Idaho because those lands are under separate, state-specific roadless regulations.
Some suspect that the administration’s true intent is not to reduce wildfire risk but to drastically increase logging production.
“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,” Andrew Wetzler, senior vice president for nature at the nonprofit Natural Resources Defense Council, said in a statement.
Jenkins added, “This is one of the most boneheaded and fiscally irresponsible actions this administration could take. The agency doesn’t have the budget to take care of the 368,000 miles of roads already riddling our national forests. In fact, there is currently a $10.8 billion maintenance backlog.”
The Roadless Rule was enacted by the Clinton administration in 2001 to prevent logging and development on millions of acres of pristine forest across the country. For 25 years, this rule has protected crucial habitats for migratory species, headwaters for municipal water supplies, and old-growth forests which act as significant carbon sinks. If the rule was rescinded, those forests and the ecosystem services they provide would be at risk.
“Once we cut a road through these forests, we don’t get their values back,” Wetzler said. “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 Roadless Rule itself is hugely popular, garnering around 75% public support. Nearly 626,000 people submitted comments on the USDA’s 2025 draft proposal to eliminate the rule, with more than 99% of comments calling for the rule to stand. Former U.S. Forest Service chiefs, lawmakers, Tribal leaders, scientists, and wildland firefighters have also defended the rule.
The Forest Service’s proposal will be published in the Federal Register later this week, after which it will accept public comments before finalizing the rule change.
—Kimberly M. S. Cartier (@astrokimcartier.bsky.social), Staff Writer
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