Defend the Roadless Rule, Protect Your National Forests
2025/09/19 | Idaho: Idaho Co.: Frank Church - River of No Return Wilderness Area
Defend the Roadless Rule, Protect Your National Forests
2026/8/19 | Author’s note: The federal administration just accelerated its attack on public lands, announcing its intent to rescind the 2001 Roadless Rule in its entirety. Comments submitted in September 2025 overwhelmingly supported the Roadless Rule. The Forest Service has a new comment period, running from August 20 through September 21, 2026.
Today, September 19, is the last day to submit a public comment on the proposed rescinding of the Roadless Rule
By Matt Barnes
As a rangeland scientist, I know firsthand that roads are damaging to forests and watersheds, and that the 2001 Roadless Rule protects more of the backcountry of our national forests than any other federal regulation. As a wildland fire professional, I know that most wildfires are human-caused, and most of those start alongside or within 50 m of a road (Aplet et al. 2026, Fire Ecology). As a wildlife conservationist, I know that wild animals need areas far from people and vehicles, especially threatened species like the grizzly bear in the Northern Rockies; similarly, five of the eight native western trout species rely on roadless areas for most of their habitat.
A young grizzly bear in Wyoming, at risk because of roads and vehicles. The grizzly bear population was at its lowest in the 1980s, followed by significant growth in the 1990s and 2000s—thanks to federal protection under the Endangered Species Act, and associated policies adopted by federal land management agencies, such as the 2001 Roadless Rule.
As a recreationist, I’ve driven many of the 370,000 miles of roads on our national forests, and I know I’ll never drive them all in this lifetime. As a river runner, I’ve paddled through the largest roadless area in the contiguous US, and I know that multi-day river trips away from roads and vehicles are essential and life-changing experiences.
Perhaps most importantly, as an American, I know that the historic experience of the wild, roadless frontier was at the core of our unique experience as a people, and in many ways it still is. The mythos of wild country is not just the backdrop of our greatest art and literature; it is our very cultural identity. The early conservation movement, including the establishment of the US Forest Service, grew out of that mythos after the closing of the frontier. At the time, nearly all of it was roadless.
That’s partly why the Roadless Rule is so popular: it was enacted after about 600 public meetings and nearly two million public comments, the most any rule had ever received over 90% of which supported the rule.
The Roadless Rule protects our wildest forests from new roads and commercial logging. It did not close any existing roads or trails. And it does allow select timber harvest to reduce fire risk or improve wildlife habitat.
The Roadless Rule protects about 44-45 million acres, and 94,000 miles of creeks and rivers on our national forests.
I recently paddled the Salmon River through the largest roadless area in the contiguous US, the Frank Church - River of No Return Wilderness Area and surrounding roadless areas on four national forests. The Middle Fork and “Main” section of the Salmon are also designated Wild and Scenic Rivers. Fortunately, Idaho and Colorado have separate agreements with the federal government concerning roadless areas, so the Salmon River is not directly threatened by recission of the national rule; unfortunately, we can expect this administration to attack those agreements next.
The Salmon River in the largest roadless area in the contiguous US, the Frank Church - River of No Return Wilderness and surrounding roadless areas of four national forests in Idaho.
Now, it's time to stop reading this and defend the Roadless Rule that has protected large areas of Your National Forests for the last quarter of a century. Today, September 19, is the last day to submit a comment at regulations.gov.
And finally, it’s time for Congress to write the Rule into law by passing the Roadless Area Conservation Act (HR 3930).
