Update: The Ongoing Assault on the Roadless Rule

For more than 25 years, the Roadless Area Conservation Rule has safeguarded some of the best remaining undeveloped national forest lands in the United States. Encompassing roughly 45 million acres across 39 states, these inventoried roadless areas protect clean drinking water, maintain habitat connectivity for wildlife, and preserve some of the last intact backcountry landscapes available to the public. Those protections are now facing sustained threats from several directions.

In 2025, USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins announced her intention to open these critical landscapes to extraction and commercial development. That shift would undercut the ecological and cultural value roadless areas provide. At the time, more than 99 percent of public commenters urged the agency to keep the rule in place. We are now waiting for the next step in the formal process: a Draft Environmental Impact Statement and a public comment period where people across the country can once again speak up for these forests. That could land at any time.

Under normal circumstances, a rule change of this scale would include public meetings hosted by the agency. So far, there has been no sign that the administration intends to follow those basic democratic practices. In their absence, conservation organizations across the country have stepped in and hosted their own public meetings and town halls so communities can voice their concerns.

One of those gatherings took place in April at The Mountaineers facility in Seattle. Alongside Tribal leaders, Senator Cantwell, Governor Ferguson, and more than 100 NGO and community members, Conservation Northwest stood firmly in defense of the Roadless Rule. When the DEIS comment portal opens, our friends at Washington Wild will submit all testimony gathered from that event to the Federal Register.

When the official comment window opens, we will share email alerts, social posts, and clear action opportunities so you can weigh in. Early indications suggest the window may be only a few weeks long rather than the more typical multi‑month period. Timely engagement will be essential, even as USDA continues to provide little clarity on timing.

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Meanwhile, a separate threat is also moving through Congress. Senator Mike Lee of Utah has introduced an amendment to the Wildfire Prevention Act that would nullify the Roadless Rule if enacted. On June 10, that amendment passed out of committee on party lines and now heads to the full Senate. While the original bill had bipartisan support, this amendment has put it at risk and elicited fierce pushback from across the conservation and recreation communities If the bill is scheduled for a hearing or a vote, we’ll share action alerts and activate alongside our partners to stand up for our wild roadless lands.

At Conservation Northwest, our commitment to the Roadless Rule comes from decades of work on the ground across Washington’s forests and watersheds, including leading the charge for the rule’s creation here. Our staff, partners, and community advocates have spent years keeping forests connected, wildlife moving, and watersheds healthy. We will keep bringing that same long‑term, place‑based focus to this work so these wildlands stay protected for the generations that follow.

Key Points About the Roadless Rule and Why Repeal Fails on Its Own Terms

• Roadless areas are some of the last large, undeveloped wildlands on our national forests. They provide essential ecological functions, including habitat connectivity for species like wolverine and Canada lynx, and they protect clean, cold water for downstream communities. These landscapes support cultural and subsistence practices and offer unparalleled backcountry recreation.
• Repealing the Roadless Rule makes no ecological or economic sense. The Forest Service already manages a 380,000‑mile road system with a 10.8 billion dollar maintenance backlog. That deficit has persisted for decades. The agency receives funding to maintain only a fraction of its existing roads, let alone new ones.
• Roads are expensive and damaging. They fragment habitat, increase human‑caused wildfire ignitions, and deliver sediment into fish‑bearing streams every year.