The Repeal of the Roadless Rule Threatens Our Wildest Public Lands

A man, small in the photo, takes pictures of two massive trees

David Herasimtschuk

Two young swimmers leap from a large boulder into the pristine waters of the North Fork of the American River.

Bob Wick / BLM

Kayaking Alexander Springs in Ocala National Forest.

Michael Warren / Getty Images

Two Eastern Screech Owl (Megascops asio) chicks peek out from a natural nesting cavity in a mature longleaf pine (Pinus palustris) in Croatan National Forest, North Carolina.

Jared Lloyd / Getty Images

Aerial view of a beaver complex and Telephone Gap in Green Mountain National Forest, Vermont.

Kurt Budliger for Earthjustice

Pink salmon spawning in Maybeso Creek, near Hollis, Alaska, Tongass National Forest.

David Herasimtschuk for Earthjustice

Kayakers traverse the famous Giant Gap run of the even more famous North Fork American River, one of the most challenging runs in Northern California.

Bob Wick / BLM

A view upwards into the tree canopy and sky in Green Mountain National Forest, home to the largest roadless areas in Vermont.

Kurt Budliger for Earthjustice

A large bear in the water and three small cubs sitting behind her

Mark Meyer / U.S. Forest Service

The Roadless Rule — the most important land and forest protection measure of our lifetime — protects 45 million acres of unfragmented, pristine national forest lands from clearcutting and damaging new roads.

Your voice is needed The Trump administration has begun the process to repeal the Roadless Rule.

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Where are Roadless areas?

Across 36 states and Puerto Rico, the Roadless Rule protects about 30% of all national forest lands — bringing outsized benefits to ourselves and the natural world.

Find roadless areas near you with the Inventoried Roadless Area Explorer.

View interactive map / © OpenStreetMap contributors / © CARTO / USDA Data

Created in 2001 with an unprecedented level of public input — 600 public hearings, 1.6 million comments from the public considered — the Roadless Rule was, and continues to be, overwhelmingly popular with the American public.

The public wanted backcountry wild lands within the forest system protected for wildlife and people alike — and also wanted to end roadbuilding that benefited the timber industry at the expense of taxpayers.

What do Roadless-protected areas look like?

Skiing through winter snow on Tumalo Mountain, Oregon.
Two young swimmers leap from a large boulder into the pristine waters of the North Fork of the American River.
Aerial view of a beaver complex and Telephone Gap in Green Mountain National Forest, Vermont.

What has the Roadless Rule accomplished?

For more than a generation, the Roadless Rule has protected centuries-old stands of old-growth trees from logging and provided essential habitat for wildlife, abundant recreational opportunities, and critical buffers against climate change.

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Trees in the Tongass were alive when ...

The Tongass National Forest is home to 800-year-old trees that were standing when the Magna Carta — the foundational legal document that was the first to publicly establish the monarchy is not above the law — was issued by King John in 1215.

The ancient trees were already hundreds of years old when Shakespeare wrote A Midsummer Night's Dream in the late 1500s and Carl Linnaeus established the two-part system for naming species in 1753.

And they had far passed the half-millennium mark when the first electric car was invented in the mid-1800s.

Mature and old-growth trees serve as key buffers against climate change by absorbing and sequestering carbon dioxide. The Tongass is estimated to store 20% of the carbon within all U.S. forests.

(One of the United States’ landmark environmental laws — the National Environmental Policy Act — is sometimes known as the “Magna Carta” of environmental law. The Trump administration is attempting to significantly weaken the National Environmental Policy Act. Earthjustice and a coalition of 200 conservation, environmental justice, Tribal, and civil rights organizations are formally opposing the changes.)

Stormy Hamar, a Haida artist and carver and an Organized Village of Kasaan tribal council member, stands among old-growth trees near Kasaan, Alaska.
Pink salmon spawning in Maybeso Creek, near Hollis, Alaska, Tongass National Forest.
Jack Gladstone hikes with his dog in the Badger-Two Medicine area in northwest Montana.

How is Earthjustice involved with the Roadless Rule?

From the beginning, the Roadless Rule has faced relentless attack from logging and resource extraction interests and political forces.

With each challenge, Earthjustice stepped in to vigorously defend the Roadless Rule, including when the government was unwilling to defend its own rule. The odds were long, and the legal maneuvering fast and furious for many years.

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Roadless areas protect watersheds that provide drinking water for …

Watersheds that serve as drinking water sources for about one in every five people across the country — from thirsty hikers enjoying Roadless-protected areas, to small municipalities, to metropolitan cities, including Denver and Santa Fe — are protected by the Roadless Rule.

“The next time you turn on the tap,” explains scientist Dominick DellaSala, “chances are the water came from a local National Forest.

“And the cleanest of this water comes from watersheds free of roads and development.”

A large bear in the water and three small cubs sitting behind her
An aerial view of trees in Tongass National Forest.
Two Eastern Screech Owl (Megascops asio) chicks peek out from a natural nesting cavity in a mature longleaf pine (Pinus palustris) in Croatan National Forest, North Carolina.

We had the law and the American people on our side.

Earthjustice and our allies began to win, one case at a time, in legal battles to defend the Roadless Rule that have now spanned three decades.

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What type of economic development is permitted in areas protected by the Roadless Rule?

The Roadless Rule is flexible — while it prohibits clear-cutting of trees and construction of new roads in order to protect intact landscapes, the rule permits other economic development that are in the public interest, including tourism projects, hydropower, mining, and utility lines.

A 2011 study found that Roadless areas generated an estimated $600 million annually from recreation visits.

Tongass National Forest, Kuiu Island, Prince of Wales Island, Alaska.
A mountain goat and kid in Bob Marshall Wilderness, a designated roadless area in Montana.

What’s happening now with the Roadless Rule?

In the latest attempt to undermine Roadless protections, on Aug. 27, the U.S. Department of Agriculture opened an official rulemaking process to rescind the Roadless Rule — laying the groundwork for a major increase in industrial logging.

Aerial view of the Galagher Canyon commercial logging operation in Oregon on July 6, 2025.
View of a clearcut on Alaska Mental Health Trust land on Prince of Wales Island near Twin Island Lake and Whale Pass, Alaska.
Clearcut area north of Thorne Bay on Prince of Wales Island on U.S. Forest Service land within the Tongass National Forest, Alaska.

From Tribes to small business owners to wildland firefighters, many across the nation are working to save roadless forests.

You have until Sept. 19 to comment on this first step in the Forest Service’s process to rescind the Roadless Rule. These are lands that belong to all Americans, not the timber industry.

A man, small in the photo, takes pictures of two massive trees

Oregon

Old-growth trees in the Siuslaw National Forest in western Oregon. The Roadless Rule protects more than 13,000 acres in the Siuslaw National Forest from commercial logging and new road-building.

David Herasimtschuk