Mark Richardson
21 Aug 2026, 05:11 GMT+10
Utah conservation groups said a Trump administration plan to cancel the decades-old Roadless Rule in national forests is ill-conceived and reckless. It would open public lands to commercial logging and other economic activities.
The 2001 rule limits road building and most logging in undeveloped parts of national forests. About half of Utah’s roughly 8 million acres of Forest Service land are affected by the Roadless Rule.
Kim Pope, Southwest conservation strategist for the Sierra Club, said the move not only endangers the ecology of Utah's forests but would also allow potentially destructive development at important historic and archeological sites.
"A lot of these roadless areas have cultural significance and also have historic relevance, things like petroglyphs and places that are really important to the Indigenous history of the area," Pope explained.
The 2026 Conservation in the West Poll by Colorado College shows strong bipartisan voter support for public lands, with 84% of respondents calling environmental law rollbacks a serious problem and 91% supporting existing national monuments. Supporters, including Utah Gov. Spencer Cox and federal officials, argued the rule prevents forest managers from thinning overgrown and diseased timber to lower fire risks.
Groups including the Sierra Club and the Wilderness Society said a repeal could fragment wildlife habitat, muddy drinking water sources, increase the Forest Service road maintenance backlog and change the quiet character of the Utah wilderness.
Josh Hicks, director of conservation campaigns for The Wilderness Society, said the proposal begins another public fight over who should decide the future of national forests: state and federal rulemakers, or the public using the lands.
"When the Roadless Area Conservation Rule was adopted back in 2001, the Forest Service held 600 public meetings to adopt that rule. The Trump administration is holding zero public meetings to engage the public, so they're really trying to jam this through," Hicks pointed out.
The USDA has moved forward with the administrative repeal process, with public comment on the proposed rule and draft environmental impact statement open through Sept. 21.
Source: Public News Service
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