The Trump administration plans to remove restrictions on logging across more than 40 million acres of national forest, the Agriculture Department said.
Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said a much-awaited proposed regulation to rescind the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule would help the Forest Service reduce wildfire risks in overstocked national forests, especially in the fire-prone West.
“Our forests can’t afford another decade of inaction,” Rollins said. “Across the country, we’ve watched preventable conditions — overgrown stands, insect outbreaks and disease — turn healthy landscapes into tinder boxes.”
The proposal would “rescind in its entirety” the roadless-area rule, which forbids road building, timber harvesting and other development except in narrow circumstances on nearly 59 million acres of the 193-million-acre forest system.
