As overseer of the national forests, the Secretary of Agriculture recently announced her intention to rescind the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule. The Roadless Rule limited construction of new roads within about 60 million acres of undeveloped areas within the national forests across the country.
A primary motivation for the Roadless Rule was the agency’s inability to manage its 368,000 miles of roads even back in 2001. Following the adage of quit digging when you are already in a hole, Forest Service Chief Mike Dombeck approved the Roadless Rule to curtail more road building.
Now, with the drastic staff reductions implemented by the Department of Government Efficiency earlier this year, and at least a 30% cut to the Forest Service in the Trump Administration’s proposed Fiscal Year 2026 budget, it makes no sense from a financial standpoint for an agency severely strapped for cash and staff to embark on a road-building spree.
By the time the Roadless Rule was adopted in 2001, the portions of the national forests still undeveloped were generally the most remote and rugged areas that also harbored the last remaining stands of unlogged, old-growth forests. In many cases, roadless areas are also municipal watersheds – around here that applies to many of our smaller mountain towns like Rico, Silverton, and Ophir. One thing the Roadless Rule had no effect on was use of existing trails, so ongoing backcountry motorized and nonmotorized recreation use of trails continued as before.
The net effect of repealing the Roadless Rule thus means directing the Forest Service – an agency lacking staff and money – to pursue building roads into the most expensive, hard to reach, and steepest portions of the national forest. Hardly a recipe for success.
A key aspect that also factored into the 2001 rule protecting roadless areas from further development was the extraordinary level of controversy associated with building roads to log previously inaccessible old-growth forests. In the 1980s and 1990s on the San Juan National Forest, there was extensive conflict around logging projects in places like Sand Bench in the Piedra River watershed. The Forest Service faced public protests, blockades, lawsuits, and demands from Senators and members of Congress to hold off logging.
The Roadless Rule greatly helped Forest Service staff focus their efforts instead on locations nearer communities, where road infrastructure already existed, and away from controversial projects in remote and undeveloped areas. Rather than bang their heads against the wall trying to jam through highly contentious projects, agency staff pursued more widely embraced projects that could be promptly approved and implemented.
The Trump Administration has simultaneously directed the Forest Service to greatly increase its timber production. If the Roadless Rule is rescinded, fewer staff pursuing more controversial logging projects, subject to vigorous public protest and litigation, won’t achieve anyone’s desired outcome.
Like with many of the environmental rollbacks underway, getting rid of the Roadless Rule seems driven more by an ideological desire to emphasize resource exploitation over conservation rather than any practical rationale.
Fortunately for Colorado, a separate Forest Service rule was adopted in 2012 that created limitations on road-building and development in national forests in Colorado. The Colorado-specific rule had greater nuance when it came to things more unique to Colorado, including ski area expansions and oil and gas infrastructure within the national forests here. The currently proposed rescission of the national Roadless Area Conservation Rule thus won’t apply to Colorado, but will to neighboring states where many folks around southwest Colorado still recreate.
Public comment on the Roadless Rule rescission is accepted through September 19.
Mark Pearson is Executive Director at San Juan Citizens Alliance. Reach him at mark@sanjuancitizens.org.
