Trump administration presses rollback of ‘Roadless Rule’ on wildlands

On Wednesday, the Trump administration took official measures to cancel an old decades that protects 58.5 million acres from wild zones in national forests, including 4.4 million acres in California.

The secretary of the United States Department of Agriculture, Brooke Rollins, said that the agency would publish a notice of intent on Friday in the federal register to retreat the so-called Roadless ruleLaunching a 21 -day public commentary period and bringing the process of reality closer.

“We are one more of the management of the common sense of our national forest lands,” Rollins said in a press release. (USDA oversees the US Forest Service.)

The rule was promulgated by the Clinton administration in 2001 after years of work and record public contributions. It has established sustainable protection for wilderness areas specified in national forests by prohibiting the construction and logging, which can destroy or disturb habitats, increase erosion and worsen sediment pollution in drinking water, among other results.

Rollins had previously announced the agency’s intention to eliminate the rule without a route in June, affirming at the time that the action would allow the federal government to better manage the risk of fire and the production of wood in the national forests.

The action complies with the efforts of the Trump administration to loosen environmental regulations. Trump in April has published an executive decree to immediately extend the wooden cut in the United States, while the Environmental Protection Agency announced more than 30 actions to repeal the rules on electric power plants, vehicle emissions, air pollution and efforts to limit greenhouse gases, rechoking the planet.

“This administration is dedicated to the abolition of heavy, obsolete and unique regulations which not only put people and means of subsistence in danger but also stifle the economic growth of rural America,” said Rollins on Wednesday. “It is essential that we correctly cook for our federal lands to create healthy, resilient and productive forests for future generations.”

The road -free rule affects forest areas in more than 40 states. In his announcement, Rollins said that termination would not apply to Colorado and Idaho, which has undergone separate regulation processes to create state -specific rules. In total, the termination would apply to nearly 45 million acres from nearly 60 million acres of inventoried roads in the national forestry system, she said.

In California, the rule includes around 4.4 million acres in 31 national forests, including the national forests of Angeles, Tahoe, Inyo, Shasta-Trinity and Los Padres. Road -free rules are distinct from the designated wilderness, such as the six wilderness areas of the National Forest of Angeles, which are established by acts of the Congress and can only be canceled by acts of the Congress.

Environmental groups have been indignant by development. Defenders of the non -profit group of fauna noted that the without road areas offer a critical refuge for fauna – supporting more than 220 protected species under the endangered species law, which the Trump administration has also evolved to shrink.

“The rule without a route is one of the best ideas that the American forestry service has ever had and the repeal is one of the worst,” said Vera Smith, director of the National Forest and Public Land Program at Defenders of Wildlife, in a statement. “This decision will literally open the way to the wood industry to Cntain de Hreux forests which house fauna in danger and are waters close to fisheries and important communities.”

Chris Wood, president and chief executive officer of the Conservation Group Trout Unlimited, said that road-free areas represent only 2% of the United States land base, but offer unprecedented outdoor access and safe refuge for around 70% of native trout and salmon. Wood, who helped develop the rule without a route while working as a main policy advisor to the forest service, said that he would welcome a transparent and collaborative process to determine if adjustments to the rule could improve it.

“Rather than canceling the rule without a route and allowing this chaos to take place, we encourage the forestry service to work with stakeholders to develop solutions that continue to protect areas without road and intact habitat of fish and fauna,” said Wood.

The Road -Social rule underwent a considerable public contribution when it was implemented in 2001, receiving a record of 1.6 million public comments and tens of thousands of people participated in hundreds of public meetings, according to the California Research and Policy Center environment.

“California’s wild forests are essential and loved public lands and the forest service should not open them to roads and development,” said group’s state director Laura Deehan, in a statement. “The parts of the inhabitants of our national forests allow us to fully immerse ourselves in nature, whether in hiking in the Sierras, the Stargazing in Lasen or the fauna of the fauna in Mendocin.”

Deehan added that the Roadless rule also promotes healthy fish populations, and that preserved forests are used as better water filters.

“It is more important to protect these lands than to obtain a little more pulp for paper, or to build another mine or one more road,” she said. “Let’s keep our wild wild forests.”

The public will be invited to comment on the USDA proposal until September 19.