On August 18, the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, Brooke Rollins, announced the U.S. Forest service officially filed an official proposal to repeal the Roadless Rule.
Established in 2001, the roadless rule has since protected thousands of acres of land in the country from future development and timber harvesting activity.
The Trump administration and U.S. Department of Agriculture have criticized the policy as being “one-size-fits-all” and cite wildfire management efforts as one of the main reasons for the repeal.
The policy currently protects roughly 69,000 acres in Wisconsin, and with the potential repeal of the environmental policy, experts want to be clear about the relationship between roads and wildfires.
Most wildfires in the United States are caused by people. According to the Fire Research and Management Exchange System, most ignitions began within 50 meters of a road.
Dr. Camille Stevens-Rumann is an associate professor of forest and rangeland stewardship, and director of the Colorado Forest Restoration Institute at Colorado State University.
“It's a situation of numbers where if you're having increased ignitions, that's unlikely to be helpful to have increased access for firefighters, because they're also just having to respond to more fires because of that increased human access to two areas,” said Stevens-Rumann.
Wildfires and the smoke associated with them have become a national issue and the repeal can impact the country as a whole, as drier and hotter weather extends the season.
The roadless rule is also open to be repealed to allow for better forestry management, but Stevens-Rumann believes it could be better practice to focus management and treatment towards areas we already have access to.
One of the reasons the roadless rule was created in 2001 was because of the $8.4 million maintenance and reconstruction backlog for Forest Service roads.
“It's easy to say, 'Oh we can then do more active forest management' and that's true, but it's not a lack of access. It's a lack of human power and Financial Resources to treat the areas that we need to treat,” said Stevens-Rumann
Public comment for the proposal has been extended to Oct 6, 2026.
Maria Peralta-Arellano is a reporter covering water quality and the environment for WXPR and a Report for America corps member. Report for America recruits, places and supports talented journalists in local newsrooms across the United States. Make a tax-deductible donation to support her work and Report for America will match it dollar for dollar. Donate here.
