Stop Freaking Out About The Forest Service Roadless Rule

Destroying our nation's last wild places isn't just evil, it also requires competence

The Trump administration’s decision to rescind the Roadless Rule, and open formerly inaccessible swaths of national forest to logging is making headlines again. And even though this is largely a nothingburger for reasons of gross incompetence, I wanted to take a minute to inject some reason into the panic. Here’s a 30-second explanation of why you should stop freaking out.

What’s Happening? Back in June, Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins announced plans to scrap the Roadless Rule, Clinton-era policy that protected, as it sounds, areas of national forest that didn’t already have roads from new road construction.

Now, USDA has announced its intent to conduct an environmental impact statement, and with that, hold an abbreviated 30-day public comment period.

Why Are They Doing This? The administration appears to have done this in order to encourage Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski to vote for the One Big Beautiful Bill. In the run up to that vote, the far-right Republican did a big song and dance show about being a “moderate,” hemming and hawing so that the White House would give her valuable concessions in return. Tl;Dr: She’s not, and she’s been attempting to use taxpayer money to give America’s largest rainforest away to China for at least two decades.

Wow That’s Scary, Are You Sure I Shouldn’t Be Worried? Don’t get me wrong, this administration’s management policies are going to both cause and worsen wildfires, and generally harm the people, communities, and ecosystems that rely on our national forest system. But, remember all the budget cuts they’re enacting in order to give billionaires all those tax breaks. As part of that, Rollins is only able to allocate $50 million over five years for new road construction.

Building roads into the Tongass was estimated to cost on average $500,000-a-mile back in 2020, when the first Trump administration tried these shenanigans for the first time. Updated for Trumpflation, that’s now $620,699. In a best case scenario, that budget only buys 80 miles of new road. Even if all of that construction is done in the Tongass, it won’t be able to open up a huge amount of the 26,000 square mile forest to logging.

As a fun aside, readers called me out for being hyperbolic with my original headline: “Roadless Rule Recision Buys Off Murkowski With Taxpayer-Funded Lumber Giveaway To China.”

Well, here’s an press release sent out by the House Natural Resources Democrats this week:

Top photo: USFS

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