Trump admin to rescind decades-long roadless rule for national forests enrages environmentalists nationwide

The Trump administration announced Tuesday it is moving ahead with plans to rescind a quarter-century-old rule that blocked logging, road building and other development on national forest lands, drawing the ire of environmentalists nationwide.The U.S.Forest Service is filing a proposal that would scrap the so called roadless rule adopted in the last days of Bill Clinton’s presidency in 2001.

The agency described the rule as a one-size-fits-all restriction that has frustrated land managers and served as a barrier to reducing wildfire risks in the nation’s forests.“Our forests can’t afford another decade of inaction.Across the country, we’ve watched preventable conditions — overgrown stands, insect outbreaks and disease — turn healthy landscapes into tinderboxes,” U.S.

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said in a statement.Scientists say that worsening wildfires are driven by a combination of climate change that warms and dries out forests, less logging and decades of fire suppression that has allowed fuels to build up.Clinton had signed the rule to safeguard undeveloped national forest land from commercial logging and mineral leasing, with a goal of keeping ecosystems pristine and protecting water supplies.Calling the roadless rule a failure, Rollins said the proposal calls for restoring authority to local forest managers and removing barriers that have kept them from improving forest health across millions of acres.The roadless rule has affected 30% of national forest lands nationwide, or about 59 million acres (24 million hectares), according to the U.S.Department of Agriculture, the agency over the Forest Service.The Forest Service will gather public comment on the proposal and on a draft of the environmental impact statement that was filed Tuesday in the Federal Register.

While the rescission removes national designation of roadless areas, officials say it doesn’t mandate timber cutting or road construction.The filing of the proposal comes ...