I strongly oppose the USDA's proposal to fully or partially rescind the Roadless Area Conservation Rule.
I have lived in Tucker County, West Virginia for more than 40 years and spend time recreating in and around the Monongahela National Forest. A large part of Tucker County’s economy is driven by tourism as people flock to the state’s National Forest and Roadless Areas in particular. Professionally, I have provided place-based education opportunities and administered the building of multi-use trails within the Monongahela National Forest, including the Canaan Mountain Roadless Area. My life, and that of my family and community, are richer because we have the option of recreating, hunting, fishing, and seeking solace on these public lands. In West Virginia, the Roadless Rule safeguards treasured places like Roaring Plains, Seneca Creek, Cheat Mountain, Canaan Mountain and Tea Creek, while protecting important buffers around Dolly Sods, Otter Creek and Cranberry Wilderness Areas.
Our national forests are public lands, and they should be protected for the benefit of everyone not opened to greater roadbuilding, more commercial logging, and expanded natural resource and mineral extraction. These lands are part of the public trust, and it is the government's charge and responsibility to be responsible stewards now and for future generations. The Roadless Area Conservation Rule, as it exists, helps protect and preserve the naturalness and wildness of these designated public lands as well as protecting the fish and wildlife habitats that are ALL Americans' birthright and that should not be used to financially benefit commercial industries and interests.
The economics and reasoning for the rescission of the Roadless Rule simply do not add up. The Roadless Rule took away “industrial scale” logging, not forest health treatments; and it allows the Forest Service to meet its multi-use mission.
Building new logging roads in remote backcountry areas is extraordinarily expensive, leaving taxpayers with billions of dollars in long-term maintenance costs for roads. There is already over $6.9 billion deferred maintenance backlog according to the DEIS. Timber revenue typically does not cover the cost of the log itself, let alone pay forward to fund the maintenance or decommissioning of roads built to harvest the logs.
Further, the DEIS estimates that eliminating the Roadless Rule would degrade roadless areas and backcountry access to millions of acres, resulting in a loss of $9 million in annual visitor spending in local communities.
The Forest Service has argued that rescinding the Roadless Rule could help address wildfire risk, but recent peer-reviewed research suggests otherwise. A 2026 study found that wildfires are approximately four times more likely to ignite near roads than in roadless areas. Roads increase human access and human-caused ignition sources. More wildfire mitigation has occurred in Roadless Areas on USFS lands than in roaded areas since the Roadless Rule was put into place. According to Forest Service data, roadless areas represent 21% of the forested landscape in national forests, and yet 34% of the total fuel treatment activities. Opening intact backcountry forests to additional road construction is not a sound wildfire prevention strategy.
The lands designated in 2001 by the Roadless Rule represented the best remaining public lands. Experienced foresters, ecologists, and land managers within the Forest Service widely agree that they have adequate decision-making authority to protect and manage their local lands within the Roadless Rule. In four western states alone, there are currently 15 million grazing allotments in Roadless areas; and Utah alone has 83,000 acres of mineral leases in Roadless areas. Political appointees overseeing the agency, who generally lack the land management experience and multi-use conservation understanding of veteran Forest Service employees, are simply trying to meet a political deregulation agenda.
In 2001 when the Roadless Rule was enacted, over 1.6 million people commented during the NEPA process with 90% of those comments offering overwhelming support. In 2025 during the initial comment period, the vast majority of comments were against revoking the Roadless Rule. Don’t ignore the voice of the public and let this well-vetted and beautifully simple regulation be rescinded simply because of the current administration’s focus on deregulation when there is no rationale or USFS data to support its removal.
These wild landscapes provide clean water, wildlife habitat and irreplaceable opportunities for outdoor recreation. please preserve the Roadless Rule to continue to protect our protect our shared public lands through this policy for future generations.