US Forest Service to Repeal Roadless Rule to Promote Logging (2)

The US Forest Service will begin the process to repeal the agency’s 2001 Roadless Rule, which protects millions of acres of national forest land from logging nationwide, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said Monday.

The Roadless Rule has been “disastrous” to Western states, where most of the land is owned by the federal government, Rollins said, speaking at the Western Governors’ Association’s annual meeting in Santa Fe, N.M.

The “misguided” rule prohibits the US Forest Service from thinning and logging, she said. Rescinding the rule will prevent the US from relying on foreign timber producers, she said.

It’s being repealed after Rollins declared an emergency in national forests, requiring widespread logging. The emergency is allowing the US Forest Service to “get more logs on trucks” as the agency becomes “aggressive in our efforts to increase American timber production,” Rollins said.

The 2001 Roadless Rule, finalized in the last days of the Clinton Administration, applies to nearly all states with national forests, including Eastern states.

Separate roadless rules apply to Colorado and Idaho. The Roadless Rule repeal doesn’t apply to those states, Rollins said.

The rules prevent road-building, mining, and logging in 58.5 million acres of inventoried roadless areas in national forests.

The Clinton-era move was backed by environmentalists but vehemently opposed by the state officials who want logging jobs to be created in the forest.

Rollins said the rule left the “timber industry decimated,” and it eliminated public access and jobs. One of the purposes of the rule was to protect drinking water, but it failed, she said.

“These restrictions have impacted every single wildfire prone state,” she said.

Utah Gov. Spencer Cox (R), speaking at the meeting, called the repeal of the Roadless Rule “big news,” and said he’d like to see Utah exempted from those protections.

A USDA spokesperson said in an email that the announcement is the first step toward repeal of the Roadless Rule and the agency will begin a legally required public notice and comment period soon. Rollins declined to comment on the repeal process.

The USDA can’t unilaterally rescind the Roadless Rule, said Mark Squillace, a natural resources law professor at the University of Colorado Law School.

The Forest Service “cannot repeal this rule without going through another notice and comment process,” Squillace said. “The Trump Administration has demonstrated a willingness to completely ignore legally required public engagement processes. If they try that here, I trust that they will be sued and that they will lose.”

Endangered Species Connection

The Endangered Species Committee is “hand in glove” to the repeal of the Roadless Rule, Rollins said.

That committee, chaired by Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, considers the fate of endangered and threatened species that stand in the way of development.

President Donald Trump signed an order this year requiring the committee to meet quarterly. The committee has not yet met, but will “imminently,” Rollins said.

When asked about the committee, Burgum said he’s unsure if a date has been set for the committee to meet.

Protesting Repeal

Environmental advocacy and law groups criticized the planned repeal of the Roadless Rule.

“The Trump administration now wants to throw these forest protections overboard so the timber industry can make huge money from unrestrained logging,” said Drew Caputo, vice president of litigation for Lands, Wildlife, and Oceans at Earthjustice, an environmental law group. “These are lands that belong to all Americans, not the timber industry.”

Andy Moderow, senior policy director at the Alaska Wilderness League, said the repeal of the Roadless Rule is a sign the Trump administration seeks to sell off or clear-cut federally-owned forests.

“This is reckless climate policy—our national forests store over 800 million metric tons of carbon each year,” he said.