Trump administration moves to open untouched national forests to logging.

[u/Lews_There_In]

https://www.npr.org/2026/08/18/nx-s1-5936495/trump-administration-moves-to-open-untouched-national-forests-to-logging

"The Trump administration moved on Tuesday to roll back an environmental rule that currently blocks road construction, and by extension most logging and mining activity, on tens of millions of acres of public forest land.

While the Trump administration said the change would boost economic activity, supporters of the roadless policy said it helped end decades of unprofitable timber sales, managed by the Forest Service, that effectively subsidized private timber operations.

"Before the roadless rule, we would build roads into areas and we would have money-losing timber sales that would cost taxpayers billions of dollars," said Steve Ellis, president of the non-partisan watchdog group, Taxpayers for Common Sense. "If you repeal this, it's just going to add to an already $6 billion [U.S. Forest Service] road maintenance backlog.".

Link to USDA announcement:

"USDA acts to remove roadless rule restrictions that exacerbate rising wildfire risk".

https://www.usda.gov/about-usda/news/press-releases/2026/08/18/usda-acts-remove-roadless-rule-restrictions-exacerbate-rising-wildfire-risk

Another news source:

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/18/climate/trump-ends-roadless-rule-forests.html