Cantwell Reminds Republican Colleagues: The Roadless Rule Drives Economic Growth, Protects Pristine Lands, & Saves Taxpayers Money

Cantwell Reminds Republican Colleagues: The Roadless Rule Drives Economic Growth, Protects Pristine Lands, & Saves Taxpayers Money

Popular conservation measure protects 58.5 million acres of pristine land from destructive and expensive roadbuilding, supports outdoor recreation economy; Cantwell has been the lead Senate champion of the Roadless Rule since it was overturned by the Bush Administration in 2001

WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA), ranking member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation and senior member of the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, spoke out against efforts to repeal the Roadless Rule. For a quarter century, the Roadless Rule has shielded 58.5 million acres of the most pristine and treasured areas within the National Forest System from roadbuilding and logging.

Yesterday, at a meeting of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, Sen. Cantwell reminded her colleagues that keeping the Roadless Rule isn't just good conservation policy -- it's good fiscal policy, too.

"[The Roadless Rule] says aren't there some elevations of public lands that are so high and so expensive to take care of that we should not basically try to use the public dollars to [build road infrastructure]," said Sen. Cantwell. "We're more challenged on our public lands, and we have to be smarter with the taxpayer dollars, but to now, today, say we're going to get rid of the Roadless Rule, which is basically like saying, okay, we're just going to go build a road anywhere, even where it's not cost-effective, even where it costs the public more."

Video of her remarks is available HERE; and a transcript is available HERE.

In August 2025, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) published a notice in the Federal Register indicating that the Trump Administration intends to start an environmental review process to rescind the rule. The notice started the clock on a three-week public comment period which ended on Sept. 19. Since the comment period, USDA has been updating its proposal and developing its accompanying draft environmental impact statement (EIS), both of which are expected to be released this summer. Following the release of the proposal and draft EIS, USDA will request additional public comments prior to finalizing its proposal and EIS.

Sen. Cantwell has repeatedly introduced legislation to codify the Roadless Rule into law, including as early as 2001. Sen. Cantwell was also a vociferous and persistent critic of the Trump administration's elimination of roadless protections for the Tongass National Forest in Alaska.

On this day one year ago, Sen. Cantwell announced a renewed push to enshrine the U.S. Forest Service's Roadless Rule protections into law. The Roadless Area Conservation Act would codify the 2001 Roadless Rule, which was developed by the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) during the Clinton Administration and finalized after several years of deliberation and 600 public meetings in local communities nationwide.

The Roadless Rule enjoys strong public support, as evidenced by the overwhelming majority of 2.5 million comments submitted on the Roadless Forest Protection Rule -more than 95%-were in support of protecting roadless areas. A March 2019 poll by the Pew Charitable Trusts found that three out of four respondents said they supported keeping roadless forest protections, while only 16% opposed it. That level of support changed little between respondents living in rural or non-rural areas and across party affiliation and political views.

For more than two decades, the Roadless Rule has prevailed over numerous court challenges and administrative and legislative attacks. The first Trump administration weakened the rule, and in October 2020 the administration removed roadless protections for over 9 million acres of pristine forest lands in the Tongass National Forest, threatening old-growth forest and southeast Alaska's robust tourism and fishing economies. Under the Biden administration, the protections in the Tongass were restored but then removed again by the second Trump administration. In April, the Trump administration enacted a sweeping rollback of environmental protections across nearly 60% of U.S. national forests, including about 26 million acres of previously protected Roadless areas. This policy shift was formalized through an emergency directive by Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, following a presidential executive order aimed at expediting logging projects by streamlining permitting, removing National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) requirements, and exempting affected forests from administrative objection processes that previously allowed for challenges by environmental groups, tribes, and local government.

By codifying the rule into law-including in the Tongass-the Roadless Area Conservation Act would uphold recreational access to public lands, preserve the habitats of 1,600 at-risk species, reduce the risk of wildfires, aid in the fight against climate change by preserving vast carbon sinks, and safeguard watersheds that provide clean drinking water for more than 60 million Americans in 39 states and more than 350 communities across the United States. The legislation would maintain the flexibility engrained in the Roadless Rule which allows for continued forest management and the construction of roads as needed to address fires, floods, or other catastrophic events, and other circumstances like the need to build new road connections between remote communities.

The Roadless Area Conservation Act of 2025 would:

• Protect, in perpetuity, 58.5 million acres of roadless national forest in 39 states;
• Ensure the more than 240 million people living within 100 miles of a national forest or national grassland retain access to opportunities for outdoor recreation, including hiking, camping, hunting, fishing, mountain biking, and backcountry skiing;
• Safeguard watersheds in national forests and roadless areas that provide clean drinking water for over 60 million Americans;
• Save taxpayers millions of dollars by limiting costly new road building, allow the Forest Service to focus on maintaining its existing 371,581-mile network of National Forest System roads, and reduce its multi-billion dollar backlog of deferred maintenance on its existing road system;
• Maintain exemptions for hydropower development, public safety, and firefighting needs; and
• Uphold the 9th and 10th U.S. Circuit Courts of Appeals decisions, as well as a decision by the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, in support of the Roadless Rule.