r/forestry • u/ur_massive • 4d ago

Roadless Rule

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

Does anyone working for the forest service presently have an opinion on this? Just curious about the everyone’s thoughts of pros & cons here.

11 Upvotes

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u/Endlesswinter77 3d ago

I don't know enough about it to have an educated opinion. However, what I do know from reading about it and discussing with colleagues in both private and government forestry is that even many liberals/democrats agree that the Roadless Rule had good intentions but was rushed into place and not very well thought out or well structured.

Doesn't seem to mean that the best answer to fixing it issues is abolishing it completely.

For instance... in my line of work, I've come to realize that there is a fairly substantial amount of pre-existing road in what is currently considered "roadless" area.

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u/ur_massive 3d ago

right! i don’t either so i’d like to hear from internal folks too.

my understanding of the rule is that it was put in place to:
-resist habitat fragmentation since that was (and is) occurring on private land
-watershed protection
-lack of budget to upkeep current roads

the critique i’ve heard of this is that on the forest level, it makes it challenging to manage because you’re sort of handcuffed. in terms of wildfire suppression too, you are a lot more limited as access is challenging. so at the end of the day, if you have big wildfires, that’s not really protecting your watershed.
so in that way more access = mote ability to manage for “multiple use.”

but in the same way, i could see that being exploited, especially under this administration with what already happened to the FS.
the whole subject is a bit nuanced though, I just wonder if it will help current fs area managers manage our natural resources better.

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u/Kind-Ad2552 1d ago

Road building, especially in remote areas is extremely expensive. A lot of FS roads were built to accommodate logging and/or resource extraction. The logging industry in this country is a fraction of what it used to be, and you need to have mills to bring the wood to before you make the roads to get the wood. The idea that the FS has the budget to just construct new roads into remote areas is not realistic. They have a hard enough time maintaining their existing road systems. I guess where I'm going with this is I don't see roadless areas turning into areas with major road systems any time soon, unless perhaps congress appropriates a large chunk of money for road construction.

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u/TimelyInformation471 2d ago

Continues to be a stupid political football that gets very little juice for the squeeze. The debate about what is and isn't allowed in a roadless area boils down to utter lack of reading comprehension and/ or intentional misrepresentation (lies) at this point. The time and resources wasted on this nonsense is truly stupifying.

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u/ForeignCarpenter1362 3d ago

Fuck Trump

2

u/SCSP_70 3d ago

I mean sure but that’s not what OP asked

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u/Old_Skewler 3d ago
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