An Important Call To Action – Protect Roadless Areas.

We have 3 more days (through Sept 19) to comment on the removal of protection of nearly 60 million acres of national forests across the United States.

The U.S. Forest Service has posted notice of its intention to roll back significant protections on some 45 million acres of mid-elevation forestland, and will accept public comments through Sept. 19 to gauge Americans’ appetite for the change.

Specifically, the Trump administration plans to rescind the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule, proposed by the Clinton administration and enacted under the George Bush administration, that generally prohibits new road construction on millions of acres of U.S. Forest Service land. The rule was adopted after hundreds of public meetings and 1.6 million public comments, 95 percent of which supported the roadless protections as a tool to conserve wildlife habitat, improve watershed health, and importantly, reduce the risk of wildfires on America’s public timberlands since 78% of human-caused fires on National Forests nationwide start within ½ mile of a road. (read details here: outdoorlife.com/conservation/roadless-rule-rollback-comment-period/).

To see the areas that could be open to road development, visit  Trout Unlimited’s,  interactive map of the 45 million acres of public forestland that would be affected.

To submit a public comment on the potential rescission of the Roadless Rule, you can use the government’s official notice portal or mail a written letter by the September 19, 2025, deadline. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has proposed to rescind the rule, which protects National Forest System lands from road construction, and you can provide input on the environmental review process through a dedicated portal or by mail to the Director, Ecosystem Management Coordination.  

• Submit your comment electronically through this portal.