Ending the roadless rule can help fight forest fires and improve wildlife access

On Aug. 23, the U.S. Forest Service announced that it is considering rescinding the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule. Across the country, newspapers ran stories saying this would open the wilderness to logging.

Supposedly, the rule was designed to preserve wilderness on federal lands. But it does not apply to places that feature “sacred sites” like Yellowstone or Yosemite or to congressionally designated wilderness areas like the iconic Aldo Leopold Wilderness in New Mexico or the Bob Marshall Wilderness in Montana.

As Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins explained, rescinding the rule would “restore authority to local forest managers who know the land best.” 

 Not surprisingly, the announcement drew an immediate backlash from environmentalists and Democrats. They claim this is a ploy to pad the pockets of timber companies at the expense of wilderness and that more roads will lead to more wildfires and degradation of wildlife habitat. 

The data, however, support Rollins’s call for better fuel management. True, roughly 85 to 90 percent of wildfires are human-caused — sparked by vehicles, discarded cigarettes, campfires or power equipment. Areas with higher human traffic and vehicles experience a much higher........

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