Trump’s Plan to End Forest Protections Targets a ‘Conservation Success Story’

The Trump administration plans to end restrictions on road construction, logging and mining on almost 45 million acres of protected public land in an attempt to unburden private industry from environmental regulations. Conservationists say the move represents an existential threat to public lands and the many ways Americans interact with the natural world. But it’s welcome news to logging interests that stand to benefit.

In June, U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins announced the agency would eliminate the Roadless Rule, which has protected large swaths of National Forest System land across the country from roadbuilding and logging since 2001, calling the policy “outdated” and “overly restrictive.” The rule initially protected almost 60 million acres of land, but its scope was reduced to 44.7 million acres following the implementation of state-specific rules in Colorado and Idaho. 

While the timber industry has hailed the move, environmental groups say it would harm ecosystems and increase fire risk. And they have called the move unsurprising given that Tom Schultz, Trump’s Forest Service chief, is a former timber industry lobbyist. 

“You should always be skeptical when the fox tells you the hen house doesn’t need to be locked anymore,” said Sam Evans, senior attorney and leader of the national forests and parks program at the Southern Environmental Law Center. He called the Roadless Rule “the biggest conservation success story of [his] lifetime.”

Evans added that the administration intends to “maximize timber production, energy development and minerals development in these areas. They want to do that to the maximum extent possible and they want to take immediate action to do it.”

Mt. Wilson Red Box Road in Angeles National Forest. Photo: Jeremy Lindenfeld.

The federal government has for years prioritized timber production over the health of national forests, Evans said, but this latest step could damage public lands beyond repair. 

“The physical effects of roads never go away, not on a human time scale,” Evans said. “What’s at stake is the experience most people think about when they think about America’s public lands. When you think about a backpacking trip or a trout fisherman standing in a river … those are from roadless areas.”

USDA spokesperson Larry Moore declined an interview request, but said in a written statement that rescinding the rule “reflects the department’s commitment to President Trump’s executive actions to expand American timber production and unleash American energy.”

Moore also cited improved wildfire mitigation as another motivation behind the deregulation, writing “roads improve access for wildland firefighting when timing is critical, and lives are at risk.” 

But Riva Duncan, a former fire chief for the Forest Service, said revoking the rule would not necessarily improve wildfire mitigation. That’s because building new roads would only marginally improve response time in still predominantly inaccessible areas while potentially increasing the risk of human-caused wildfires. 

Areas within 50 meters of a road experience almost four times as many wildfire ignitions as roadless areas, according to a report published this year by the Wilderness Society. And while the median wildfire in roadless areas is about 28% larger than those within 100 meters of a road, fires near roads are more likely to be caused by human activity than those farther away. 

Some opponents of the administration’s plan, like Steve Ellis, chair of the National Association of Forest Service Retirees, contend that axing the rule may not even achieve the administration’s stated goal of increasing timber production, at least in the short term. He said negative market forces and a reduced Forest Service workforce will make selling timber from roadless areas more difficult. 

But according to Mike Albrecht, president of the American Loggers Council, getting rid of the Roadless Rule is a critical step in revitalizing the country’s struggling timber industry, even if it takes five or 10 years.

“The timber industry in America has been slowly going through a dismantling. It’s been diminished terrifically,” Albrecht said. “We have just overprotected our forests. … A stronger timber management program can go a long way toward solving that problem.”

Other timber industry groups echoed that sentiment. 

“We’re supportive of rescinding the rule because the need for flexible, proactive forest management has never been greater,” said Nick Smith, a spokesperson for the American Forest Resource Council, a timber industry trade group. “It restores the ability of land managers to make science based, site specific decisions.”

Proactive forest management tactics include increased timber harvest, forest thinning, prescribed fire and road construction, according to Smith.  

Timber professionals say the downsides of eliminating the roadless rule won’t be as bad as some environmentalists fear. 

“Rescinding the rule does not mandate building roads or logging,” Smith said. 

Without the rule, however, some public lands advocates expect many currently protected areas will soon be scarred with roads and logged. The timber industry contends it would be a long process to build roads in formerly protected areas, but environmentalists claim it could start as soon as next year. 

Eric Hanson walks through Angeles National Forest on the lookout for doves. Photo: Jeremy Lindenfeld.

For hunters like Eric Hanson, who chairs the California chapter of Backcountry Hunters and Anglers, keeping areas roadless is critical to maintaining habitat for the many ways Americans enjoy the natural world. That is why he and other advocates are calling on individuals to tell their representatives why these places are important and to submit public comments on the USDA’s proposal before a Sept. 19 deadline. 

“Our public lands, no other country has something like we have, where you can do so many activities from picnicking, hiking, bird watching, fishing, hunting, riding and off-road vehicles,” Hanson said. “If we don’t have those spaces to do those things, we lose a lot of what makes America’s public land special.”

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Jeremy Lindenfeld is a California Local News Fellow.