In response to Trump’s Agriculture Secretary Rollins flagrant pandering to corporate timber, mining, and drilling interests, by attempting to remove all protections from over 50 million acres of un-roaded National Forest lands; there is a bill attempting to codify the Roadless Rule in law that was introduced by Senator Maria Cantwell of Washington. The co-sponsors are Mr. Gallego, Mr. Padilla, Mr. Booker, Ms. Smith, Mr. Wyden, Mr. Durbin, Mr. Sanders, Mr. Welch, Mr. Merkley, Mrs. Murray, Ms. Hirono, and Mr. Blumenthal. The bill is titled, The Roadless Area Conservation Act of 2025 (S-2042) and it intends to do the following:
- Protect, in perpetuity, 58.5 million acres of roadless national forest in 39 states. ● Ensure the more than 240 million people living within 100 miles of a national forest or national grassland retain access for outdoor recreation, including hiking, camping, hunting, fishing, mountain biking, and backcountry skiing.
- Safeguard watersheds in national forests and roadless areas that provide clean drinking water for over 60 million Americans.
- Save taxpayers millions of dollars by limiting costly new road building while allowing the Forest Service to focus on maintaining its existing 371,581-mile network of roads which will reduce its multi-billion-dollar backlog of deferred maintenance on its existing road systems.
- Maintain exemptions for hydropower development, public safety, and firefighting needs. ● Uphold the 9th and 10th U.S. Circuit Courts of Appeals decisions, as well as a decision by the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, in support of the Roadless Rule.
The noble defense of roadless areas has been going on for more than 20 years. It has been a long tough battle that the environmental and recreationists communities have been successfully defending from the gas, oil, mining and timber entities as they want to cash in on some of the last completely intact ecosystems whose only value, for them, lies in its resource extraction.
(Important note: We expect the Forest Service to release a draft environmental document with a very limited comment period, sometime in late March or April, and we will send out notices alerting you of that event.)
I have outlined a timeline of key events in this long battle to save our roadless areas:
January 1998 – Forest Service Chief Michael Dombeck announces he will be developing a transportation policy for the National Forest System. He also proposes to institute an 18-month road building moratorium on 130 National Forests while that new policy is developed.
February 1999 – A temporary roadbuilding moratorium approved by the Forest Service goes into effect.
October 1999 – President Clinton announces his administration will develop a more comprehensive policy to protect the remaining unprotected wilderness areas in the National Forest System. This effort will be conducted parallel to the previously announced transportation policy, which would primarily focus on areas within the National Forests that are already roaded.
May 2000 – The Forest Service releases a Draft Environmental Impact Statement to implement President Clinton’s plan. Under the proposed policy, 43 million acres of roadless forest would be protected. This policy marks an important first step towards the preservation of our national forests, but it does not go far enough.
November 2000 – The Forest Service releases a near-final plan. The agency proposes to immediately prohibit roadbuilding and commodity logging on 49 million acres of wild forests. In 2004, it would also be expanded to include Alaska’s Tongass National Forest, bringing the total acres protected to 58.5 million.
January 2001 – President Clinton issues the Roadless Area Conservation Policy directive, ending virtually all logging, roadbuilding, and any coal, gas, oil, or other mineral leasing in the 58 million acres of remaining undeveloped national forest lands. The Roadless Area Conservation directive is the direct result of a tremendous outpouring of public support. More than 600 public hearings were held around the nation, and the public provided more than 1.6 million comments on the Rule—more comments than any other rule in the nation’s history.
January 2001 – The Roadless policy rule is published in the Federal Register.
January 20, 2001 – George W. Bush is sworn in as the 43rd President. The new White House Chief of Staff, Andrew Card, sends a memo from the White House in late January, telling all Cabinet Secretaries to delay all rules and regulations pushed into place during the final days of the Clinton administration. The Roadless Rule is one of many new policies that fall under this decree.
February 2001– In accordance with President Bush’s Regulatory Review Plan, the roadless policy is delayed for an additional 60 calendar days. This is the result of the so-called “Card Memo” from White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card.
March 16 2001 – The Bush administration delays implementing the rule a second time. Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman publishes an official notice in the Federal Register, noting that the implementation date of the Roadless Rule is being delayed an additional 60 days, from March 13 to May 12.
March 30 2001 – The government commits to completing its review of the Roadless Rule
May 4 2001 – The government reports they will allow the Roadless Rule to go into effect on May 12, but would move at a later date to amend it.
May 10, 2001 – Idaho Federal Judge, Edward Lodge, issues a preliminary injunction barring the 2002 legislation.
August 2002– In a surprise reversal the Bush administration DOJ goes to court and defends the roadless rule, and the government admits in court that the roadless rule was legally adopted.
December 12, 2002 – The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals reinstates the Roadless Area Conservation Rule by reversing the injunction of Judge Lodge.
June 9 2003 – The Bush administration announces it will settle a lawsuit brought by the State of Alaska by agreeing to exempt the Tongass National Forest—and later the Chugach National Forest—from the Roadless Rule. The Bush administration also announces it is working on a revised rule that would allow governors to opt out of the rule.
July 14, 2003 – Wyoming Federal Court Judge Clarence Brimmer finds the rule illegal and issues an injunction that is supposed to cover the entire country. That ruling is appealed by activists represented by Earthjustice. It is not appealed by the Forest Service and/or government defendants.
December 30, 2003 – The Bush administration formally settles the Alaska state case and “temporarily” exempts the Tongass National Forest from the Roadless Rule.
July 12, 2004 – The Bush administration proposes a new Rule to replace the 2001 Rule “with a petitioning process that would allow Governors an opportunity to seek establishment of management requirements for National Forest System inventoried roadless areas within their States.” This new proposed Rule is praised by timber companies and universally derided by environmental organizations.
May 5, 2005 – The Bush administration puts the state petitions rule into place as a substitute for the Roadless Rule.
May 12, 2005 – The Bush administration formally adopts the new Rule with an announcement in the Federal Register.
July 28, 2005 – 146 members of the House of Representatives introduce legislation that will reinstate the original version of the Roadless Rule and repeal the Bush administration’s substitute.
August 30, 2005 – The attorney general of California and New Mexico and the governor of Oregon file suit, challenging the Bush administration’s substitute Roadless Rule and seeking reinstatement of the original Rule.
October 6, 2005 – 20 conservation groups file a lawsuit in federal district court in San Francisco seeking to reinstate the original Roadless Rule.
December 22, 2005 – Virginia becomes the first state to file a petition under the Bush Rule, seeking protection for all roadless areas in the state.
February 2, 2006 – The State of Washington moves to join the lawsuit filed by California, New Mexico, and Oregon on the side of those states.
February 22, 2006 – The far-right Blue-Ribbon Coalition and other anti-roadless organizations move to intervene in litigation filed by the states and environmental groups.
February 24, 2006 – The States of Montana and Maine file friend-of-the-court briefs in support of California, Oregon, New Mexico, and Washington.
April 5, 2006 – The Nez Perce Tribe petitions the Secretary of Agriculture to reinstate the Roadless Rule in order to protect tribal lands and traditional use territories.
June 1, 2006 – New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson petitions the Bush administration to protect all of his state’s roadless forests, becoming the first Western Governor to do so.
July 12, 2006 – California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger files a petition seeking protection for all of California’s roadless national forests—more than four million acres.
September 20, 2006 – Federal District Court Judge Elizabeth Laporte in San Francisco orders reinstatement of the Clinton-era Roadless Rule to protect almost 50 million acres of wild national forests and grasslands from road building, logging, and development.
February 5, 2007 – Judge Laporte issues a final injunction, clarifying that the injunction extends to oil and gas drilling permits (as well as leases) issued since May 2005.
April 9, 2007 – The Forest Service and timber industry appeal Judge Laporte’s decision to the Ninth Circuit.
January 22, 2008 – 10-year anniversary of the Forest Service’s proposed moratorium on road construction in Inventoried Roadless Areas.
February 28, 2008 – The State of California sues the Forest Service for failing to protect roadless areas in four southern California forest plans.
August 12, 2008 – Wyoming Federal District Court Judge Brimmer issues a second decision, very similar to the July 14, 2003 decision, invalidating and endangering the Roadless Rule nationwide.
August 20, 2008 – The Bush administration asks Judge Brimmer and Judge Laporte to suspend their respective injunctions.
October 16, 2008 – The Forest Service adopts the less-protective Idaho Roadless Rule.
October 20, 2008 – There is a Ninth Circuit hearing on the Administration’s appeal of Judge Laporte’s September 20, 2006 decision.
November 4, 2008 – Barack Obama, a supporter of the Roadless Rule, is elected President of the United States.
March 18, 2009 – 25 U.S. Senators and 131 Representatives send letters to USDA Secretary Vilsack requesting interim protection of all roadless areas.
May 28, 2009 – The Obama administration announces that Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack will review all plans for roadbuilding or logging in designated roadless areas for at least the next year. The review does not automatically stop upcoming timber sales in the Tongass, and excludes all of Idaho.
August 5, 2009 – The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals affirms protection for over 40 million acres of wild national forests and grasslands from new road building, logging, and development.
August 13, 2009 – The Obama administration appeals a Wyoming federal district court ruling that struck down the national Roadless Rule. The appeal will go to the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver.
October 21, 2011 – The Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals reverses Wyoming district court, upholding the Roadless Rule and vacating the prior injunction.
February 16, 2012 – The Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals rejects a request from the State of Wyoming and the Colorado Mining Association asking for another hearing on their case against the Roadless Rule.
October 1, 2012 – The U.S. Supreme Court denies a request by the State of Wyoming to review the legality of the Roadless Rule. With the Supreme Court’s denial of Wyoming’s petition for review, there should no longer be any question about the Roadless Rule’s legality.
March 25, 2013 – The D.C. District Court ends a challenge by the state of Alaska against the Roadless Rule. This case is the final litigation challenging the rule nationwide. The court holds that no further challenges are allowed, because the statute of limitations has run out.
March 26, 2014 – A divided panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals reverses the 2011 Alaska District Court decision by a 2–1 split vote, once again exempting the Tongass from the Roadless Rule’s protection.
August 29, 2014 – The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit announces it will re-hear the case challenging the Tongass exemption. The court grants the rehearing en-banc (all members of the court vote), rendering the earlier opinion ineffective.
July 29, 2015 – The Ninth Circuit’s 11-judge en banc panel rules that the exemption of the Tongass from the Roadless Rule was illegal.
March 28, 2016 – The U.S. Supreme Court declines to hear a last-ditch effort by the State of Alaska to exempt the Tongass National Forest from the Roadless Rule.
The Ninth Circuit’s ruling—and the decision by the Supreme Court not to review that ruling—reinforced the settled rule that federal agencies cannot arbitrarily change policies and ignore previous factual findings simply because a new president has taken office.
September 21, 2017 – The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia throws out the state of Alaska’s attack on protections for the nearly 50 million acres of wild “roadless” national forest lands nationwide from logging and logging roads. The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia previously dismissed the case for exceeding the six-year statute of limitations. An appeals court overturned that ruling, saying the clock started ticking when a federal court reinstated the rule in 2006, not when the rule was first issued in 2001. Alaska filed its challenge in 2011, seeking to overturn the rule on multiple grounds. The lengthy and careful ruling finds that each of those claims lack merit.
August 2, 2018 – The U.S. Department of Agriculture announces that it intends to create an “Alaska state-specific” version of the Roadless Rule, undermining safeguards for the Tongass and the Chugach National Forests, prized expanses of glaciers, fjords and old-growth rainforest spanning more than 22 million acres in Alaska.
October 15, 2019 – the Trump Influenced U.S. Forest Service announces plans to repeal Roadless Rule protections across more than 9 million acres of the Tongass National Forest, enabling logging interests to bulldoze roads and clear-cut trees in areas of the Tongass that have been off-limits for decades. The millions of ancient trees across this temperate rainforest serve as the greatest carbon sanctuary in the U.S. national forest system, helping us all as a counterweight against the current climate crisis.
October 29, 2020 – The Trump administration announces a final rule exempting the Tongass National Forest from the Roadless Rule.
December 23, 2020 – Five Alaska Native Tribes, Southeast Alaska small businesses, and conservation organizations, challenged the Trump administration’s decision to exempt the Tongass National Forest from the Roadless Rule.
January 20, 2021 – President Biden directed USDA to review the Tongass Roadless decision, among other rules, in a first day executive order.
June 11, 2021 – The U.S. Forest Service, under the Biden administration, announces a timeline for revisiting the first Trump administration’s rollback of federal Roadless Rule protections that exempted Southeast Alaska’s Tongass National Forest.
July 15, 2021 – The U.S. Department of Agriculture announces the Southeast Alaska Sustainability Strategy, a new strategy for the Tongass National Forest intended to improve engagement with tribal nations, end large-scale old growth timber sales on the Tongass National Forest, restore the Roadless Rule to the Tongass, and shift management resources to supporting forest restoration, recreation and resilience, including for climate, wildlife habitat and watershed improvement. The USDA pledges to consult with Tribes and Alaska Native corporations, and to invest approximately $25 million to work collaboratively with partners and communities to build sustainable opportunities for economic growth and community well-being.
November 16, 2021 – The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed Alaska’s attack on the Roadless Rule, holding the case moot because the Trump administration had already granted Alaska’s petition to exempt the Tongass.
January 20, 2025 – Trump signed the Executive Order, “Unleashing Alaska’s Extraordinary Resource Potential,” which outlines plans for maximum exploitation of Alaska’s natural resources including repealing Roadless Rule protections for the Tongass.
June 23, 2025 – Agriculture Secretary Rollins announced a rollback of the 2001 Roadless Rule. The move is particularly significant for the Tongass National Forest, where eliminating the Roadless Rule would remove critical safeguards against industrial logging and damaging roadbuilding from over 9 million undeveloped acres within the 17-million-acre forest. While the Trump administration has suggested that wildfire risk is an underlying reason for these sweeping policy changes, rolling back the Roadless Rule actually threatens to cause more fires.
August 27, 2025 – The U.S. Department of Agriculture began the process to repeal the Roadless Rule. The public has just three weeks to comment on this first step in the Forest Service’s process to rescind the Roadless Rule.
September 22, 2025 – More than a half a million people say ‘no’ to the USDA’s plan to repeal the Roadless Rule. The high volume, collected in just 21 days during the initial round of public comment, indicates broad public outrage to the Trump administration’s planned rollback. Additionally, 329 organizations sent a letter to Agriculture Sec. Rollins opposing the rollback, 55 members of Congress called for more time for the public to weigh in on the plan, and a diverse array of voices have defended the Roadless Rule, including former U.S. Forest Service chiefs,
Tribal elders and leaders, scientists, business owners, wildland firefighters, and many environmental organizations.
What’s on Larry’s radar
Larry Glass has been working with the NEC now for 50 years and is its longest serving board member. He has been an environmental activist since the first Earth Day. Larry is focused on forest and public lands defense. Larry is Currently the Public Lands Director for the Northcoast Environmental Center.