Urgent Update On the Roadless Rule

The Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, whose chairman leader is Mike Lee, the Utah senator that wants to watch the world burn apparently (hyperbolic or realist? You tell me), introduced yet another way to repeal the Roadless Rule. Then, on August 18, USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins announced a proposed rule on to rescind the conservation effort in its entirety. Rescinding the Roadless Rule is about to take effect.

Rescinding the Roadless Rule Long Story Short

WE MUST ACT NOW! We can only hope that public input will affect the outcome of this attempt to rescind the Roadless Rule.

Public Input is open until September 21, 2026. 

Make your voice heard! There are two ways I suggest doing this:

1. Make your voice heard with help from a prewritten letter

I’m going to defer to a trusted environmental society, The Mountaineers, to send

your letter to Secretary Brooke Rollins of the Department of Agriculture. The message is already written out, but feel free to personalize it. In fact, I highly recommend you do so. They will then send your revised version to the forest service site.

Click this link to access their website:

The Mountaineers Call to Action

2. Make your voice heard directly to the Forest Service

You can write your own dissent directly to the forest service. Include your reasoning on why you oppose the rescission of the Roadless Rule.

Comment here on the actual forest service public comment site.

Here are the facts:

Secretary Brooke Rollins of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) “filed a proposed rule to rescind in its entirety the national 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule” (USDA). This is under the guise of what she claims is “wildfire risk restriction,” basically stating that the roads rule is the reason why the Western US is on fire. SHE IS WRONG. She states this without any scientific backing, no accredited research, and no apparent sources defending her claim.

The Trump Administration is saying rescinding the Roadless Rule is to manage national forests. It claims the way to do that is to have better access to them (USDA). In reality, opening forests will make it possible and outright easy for our extensively protected forests TO BE LOGGED. They don’t care about the fires out here. If they did, there would be preventative, science-based initiatives. 

That being said, I do give lots of credit to the state-implemented actions our local governments are taking. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has also been a huge help in Washington state thanks to WA Governor Bob Ferguson. Our local fire departments and wildfire fighters across the west are incredible humans. Thank you for your tenacity, bravery, and steadfast commitment to protecting us. 

Keep protected land protected

However, on a federal level, rescinding the Roadless Rule for the sake of wildfire management is pseudo-science. It is an excuse to pillage our wilderness, effecting not only 25,000 miles of trails, but the waterways, species, watersheds, microbiome, and all natural inhabitants. It will also increase pollution in our soil and waters, which will impact nearby towns. All for logging and mining.

Rescinding the Roadless Rule is not the pious environmental proposal it disguises itself as. It is taking your national forests away and giving them to corporations. And it is extremely unpopular across party lines. This is a citizen issue, not a political party issue. It is stripping your rights to access and conserve national land which they promised to protect. 

Deja Vu

I cannot believe I am writing this again. I wrote a blog about defending the Roadless Rule less than a year ago. They will keep attacking our land. This fight is not over. Speak up, tell the Forest Service what protecting our lands means to you. Please defend our National Forests. It is up to us to stay vigilant. Oppose their rule. Hold Brooke Rollins accountable.

And readers, thank you for hanging in here with me. I will write about misadventures, backpacking, rafting, all of the fun and silliness and gratitude that comes with adventuring. But for right now, my prerogative is to defend the land so that adventuring is possible. It is under threat. For all of us. I do not want to fear monger. I do want you to understand the gravity of how the United State's current administration is creating false narratives around environmental protection. It is up to us to stand up for the land. Thank you for making your voice heard.