Protections for 6 million acres of Montana public forests in limbo

BOZEMAN, MT — 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.

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. Repealing protections for our nation’s most intact, backcountry areas is not a wildfire solution. In fact, opening the door for more roads in forests increases the chances of ignition.

In response to the news, The Wilderness Society released the following statement from Montana State Director Barb Cestero:

“Future generations of Montanans will have less freedom to explore this state if there are roads in the places where we take our kids to hunt, fish and camp. The Roadless Area Conservation Rule has protected some of our best backcountry forests for 25 years.  When overwhelming majorities from across the political spectrum support current prohibitions on building new roads, it's clear Washington isn't listening. Montanans want to see these forests conserved for the clean water, habitat, and access to nature they provide."

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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.

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