The USDA has announced it intends to strip protections from 45m acres of national forests by starting the formal process to rescind the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule across the National Forest System.
Included would be places like the Tongass National Forest, one of the last remaining intact temperate rainforests in the world.
The Notice of Intent opens a short, three-week long public comment period. The initial development of the rule brought in more than 1.6m public comments, 95% of which supported Roadless areas protections. There were also 600 public meetings.
“America’s national forests give us clean air, water, wildlife, and the freedom for all to enjoy the outdoors,” said The Wilderness Society president Tracy Stone-Manning.
“But now they are the latest target in this administration’s unpopular push to give away our lands to drill, mine and log. Gutting the Roadless Rule—which has protected our forests for 25 years—would be the single largest rollback of conservation protections in our nation’s history. Americans cherish their public lands and deserve leaders who protect them for future generations, not give them away to corporations that exploit them.”
The 2001 Roadless Rule protected 58m acres of national forest lands that provide recreation, wildlife and fish habitat, clean water and other important ecosystem services to all Americans, along with significant economic benefits. It was adopted at the end of the Clinton administration after the most extensive public involvement process in Forest Service history.
The Bush administration attempted to repeal the Roadless Rule in 2005 but lost in the courts.
