On Tuesday, August 18, the U.S. Forest Service filed a proposed rule to rescind, in its entirety, the national 2001 Roadless Area Conversation Rule, citing that the one-size-fits-all restriction has frustrated land managers and served as a barrier to wildfire risk reduction work across large swaths of national forests. Along with the proposed rule, USFS also released a draft environmental impact statement. The public comment period on the proposed rule and draft of the environmental impact statement is open through September 21.
According to the Department, the 2001 Roadless Rule has restricted road construction and limited the ability of the Forest Service to carry out critical active management work within inventoried roadless areas. Today, that includes more than 44 million acres of the 193-million-acre National Forest System. The rescission is intended to prioritize local agency decision-making over regulatory rules that are the same across the country, regardless of specific land management issues and needs.
The rescission removes national designation of roadless areas, but does not mandate timber cutting or road construction. According to the Forest Service, more than 40 percent of inventoried roadless areas, concentrated in the West, have high or very high wildfire hazard potential, and only about 5 percent of those acres have received hazardous fuels treatment since 2014. 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 or Idaho, because those lands are under separate state-specific roadless regulations.
To comment on the proposed rule and draft environmental impact statement, visit Regulations.gov. Public comments must be received by midnight on September 21. Information is available on the Forest Service Roadless Areas webpage.
For additional information, contact RCRC Senior Policy Advocate Staci Heaton.