“The Roadless Rule is important because it protects something that is increasingly rare in America: large…”

The Roadless Rule is important because it protects something that is increasingly rare in America: large, intact forests that remain free from roads, industrial development, and fragmentation. These landscapes provide clean drinking water, wildlife habitat, carbon storage, recreation, solitude, and opportunities for future generations that cannot simply be recreated once roads and development move in. The rule is also uniquely American in spirit—a recognition that our public lands belong to all of us and that some places are more valuable when we choose not to develop them. The Forest Service itself has long recognized that roadless areas contain scarce ecological, social, and economic values, while Congress’s research service notes that roads can fragment habitat, increase erosion, degrade water quality, and increase human-caused fire risk. Just as importantly, rescinding the Roadless Rule is not a wildfire-prevention strategy supported by the evidence. A 2026 analysis of four decades of fire data across 11 Western states found that wildfire rates in inventoried roadless areas were not significantly different from those in roaded and developed portions of national forests, concluding that rescinding the rule is unlikely to produce different wildfire outcomes. The existing rule also contains exceptions that allow vegetation management, road construction, and other actions when necessary to reduce wildfire risk or protect public safety. Opening these lands to more roads, logging, and development would trade an enormous, long-term public value for relatively limited short-term opportunities. Roadless forests provide benefits that timber sales cannot replace: clean water, intact ecosystems, recreation, wildlife habitat, and the simple value of knowing that there are still places in America where development has not yet reached. Once those landscapes are fragmented by roads and industrial activity, their roadless character—and many of the values that come with it—cannot easily be restored. -From Indiana