HELENA — The Trump administration’s proposal to lift a nationwide policy that limited logging and roadbuilding in National Forest lands has sparked debate. Now, the public has just under three weeks to make their voices heard on the proposal.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture, which oversees the U.S. Forest Service, announced last month that it planned to lift the 2001 “Roadless Rule.” That rule restricts road construction and timber harvesting in “inventoried roadless areas.”
(Watch the video to hear more Montana reactions to the proposed repeal.)
Federal leaders said the rule is a “one-size-fits-all” solution that is no longer working. They said removing it would allow decisions to be made on the local level.
“Across the country, we’ve watched preventable conditions – overgrown stands, insect outbreaks and disease – turn healthy landscapes into tinderboxes,” said U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins in a statement. “For too long, outdated restrictions have kept tens of millions of forested acres off-limits to the very treatments that improve forest health and reduce wildfire risk to our communities.”
Montana has more than 6 million acres of inventoried roadless areas – more than a third of the National Forest land in the state. In some places, like the eastern shores of Hauser Lake and Upper Holter Lake near Helena, they are relatively small pieces of land adjacent to existing wilderness areas. In other areas, like the Crazy Mountains, they cover large swathes of territory.
Some conservation groups have warned opening up these lands could cause environmental harms – threatening wildlife habitat and clean water, and raising the risk of human-caused wildfires.
This week, the Greater Yellowstone Coalition held events in Bozeman and Helena, encouraging people opposed to the Roadless Rule repeal to write postcards they will deliver to federal leaders.
Robert Ray and Fran Penner-Ray were among those who came to the event in Helena. They said they wanted to send a message to those in power.
“I feel very much like they're not listening, but I don't know what else I can do that makes a difference,” said Ray. “And I want to make a difference, because I think that as Americans, we all have a responsibility to influence our government in whatever way or shape we can.”
Mary Hollow is executive director of Prickly Pear Land Trust, which co-sponsored the Helena event with GYC. She says there hasn’t been a good enough justification for why this change is needed.
“The beauty of this rule is that, because of it, nothing has changed on those maps, and those lands have become key parts of our public lands – that this state now not only loves to recreate on, but those lands fuel our economy and our way of life here,” she said.
PPLT frequently works on acquiring parcels of land and donating them for public use. Hollow says, in some cases, that land ended up with the Forest Service and could be affected by the Roadless Rule repeal.
Montana Republican leaders have generally praised the repeal. Gov. Greg Gianforte was quoted in the USDA statement announcing the decision.
"Today's long overdue decision will empower states like Montana to pursue proper forest management on federal lands with local communities in mind,” he said.
In particular, they say the change will make it easier to fight wildfires and actively reduce hazardous fuels.
“Not having the ability to get in there and fight a fire, the alternative is they just box them and we burn down our forests,” U.S. Rep. Ryan Zinke told MTN.
Zinke, who served as U.S. Secretary of the Interior during President Donald Trump’s first term, said repealing the Roadless Rule doesn’t mean there will be immediate or runaway development across these lands.
“We'll look at it and carefully go through some metrics about why it was roadless, was closed – in some cases, they were closed by people in Washington, D.C., that don’t even know where Montana is,” he said.
Meanwhile, several dozen Democratic state lawmakers signed onto a letter to USFS Chief Tom Schultz in support of the Roadless Rule.
“Please reconsider your proposal to rescind the rule and instead work with local communities and stakeholders to find ways to improve wildfire management and recreational opportunities in National Forests instead of throwing out a proven and effective tool that promotes both important priorities,” they wrote.
The 30-day public comment period on the Roadless Rule repeal is set to end at midnight on September 21. If you want to make a comment, you can find information on how to do so at regulations.gov.
