Californians have one last chance to defend Roadless Rule Protecting National Forests

SAN FRANCISCO, CA — Today, the USDA announced that it has filed a proposed rule to fully repeal the U.S. Forest Service’s 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule. The 2001 Roadless Rule protects 45 million acres of national forest lands from roadbuilding and logging, including more than 4.4 million acres in California and lands surrounding Yosemite National Park, the Giant Sequoia National Monument, and large sections of the Pacific Crest Trail.

The Notice of Intent to repeal the rule was announced last August, bringing in over 600,000 public comments, the vast majority of which were opposed to repealing the conservation measure.

The release of the proposed rule and accompanying draft environmental impact statement comes while wildfires rage across the country. California’s roadless forests are some of the most intact and resilient landscapes left in the state. Because they remain undeveloped, they experience fewer human-caused ignitions and are better able to withstand naturally-occurring wildfire, drought, and climate stress.

Today’s announcement includes a 30-day comment period, and what may be the final chance for Californians to speak out against this proposal.

In response to the news, The Wilderness Society issued the following statement from Helen O’Shea, California State Director:

“Californians know you don’t make forests safer by building more roads into the backcountry, especially when the Forest Service is already stretched thin and fire season is in full swing.

More than 600,000 people weighed in when the administration first proposed tearing up these protections, and the overwhelming message was clear: Leave our roadless forests alone.

Now Californians have one last chance to be heard. We have 30 days to speak up together for the forests we love and make sure our children and grandchildren inherit these places as we know them today, not crisscrossed by unnecessary roads we cannot afford to maintain and that bring fire in their wake.”

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Wildfires are 4x more likely to start near roads than in roadless forests

Since last summer, the Trump administration has claimed repealing the Roadless Rule would allow for “fire prevention”. But new research says the opposite. In fact, wildfires are four times more likely to start near roads than in roadless forests.

The research examined a large, nationwide dataset to determine whether roads on the national forests are associated with higher ignition risk, and they examined patterns of fire size to see whether wilderness and roadless areas are associated with larger fires.

The results suggest that building roads into roadless areas is likely to result in more fires. These fires will, on average, be smaller than fires farther from roads, but there will be more of them, and some of them will grow to become large fires.

According to USDA, the proposed rule will be in the federal register reading room tomorrow and formally published in the Federal Register on Thursday. Public comments will be accepted until midnight on Sept. 21, for only a 30-day comment period. Information will be available Aug. 19 on the Forest Service Roadless Areas webpage.

The Wilderness Society’s national response from Josh Hicks, Director of Conservation Campaigns, can be found here.

For media inquiries, contact Jen Dixon at jdickson@tws.org