AFRC and Calforests Urge Forest Service to Rescind Roadless Rule to Restore Forest Health and Wildfire Resilience

For Immediate Release: September 18, 2025
Contact: Nick Smith (503) 515-4206

The American Forest Resource Council (AFRC) and the California Forestry Association (Calforests) today submitted formal joint comments to the U.S. Forest Service in support of rescinding the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule. The two associations, representing forest products manufacturers and forest land stewards across the West, say the nationwide, top-down rule has hindered science-based forest management on federal lands at a time when wildfire threats, drought, and insect outbreaks are growing more severe.

The Roadless Rule prohibits or restricts access and active management on nearly 59 million acres of National Forest System lands, including many landscapes in the West most at risk of catastrophic wildfire and insect mortality. In their comments, AFRC and Calforests write that the rule is outdated, duplicative, and scientifically unjustified.

"The Roadless Rule is based on the false notion that doing nothing is the best way to protect our forests," said AFRC President Travis Joseph. "This passive management paradigm has failed our landscapes and our communities, contributing to millions of acres of wildfire and forest loss across the West."

Nearly half of all Inventoried Roadless Areas are now rated as high or very high wildfire hazard potential, and more than 8 million acres of these forests have burned since the Rule was adopted. Many of these fires have occurred in areas where local forest managers were unable to carry out thinning or fuels treatments because of the Rule's roadbuilding prohibitions. The comments also note that many roadless areas lack adequate access for firefighting crews, putting lives and property at greater risk.

Photo: Montana's Basin Creek watershed, which supplies Butte's drinking water. Roadless Rule restrictions limit forest management near the reservoir, leaving this critical water supply at risk from severe wildfire. (AFRC/Tom Partin)

The joint comments also highlight the importance of active forest management to reduce forest density, improve wildlife habitat, and allow forests to better recover from drought, beetle infestations, and high-severity fire. AFRC and Calforests say rescinding the Rule will not remove existing environmental safeguards, including the National Environmental Policy Act, Endangered Species Act, Clean Water Act, and the requirements of site-specific forest plans such as the Northwest Forest Plan (NWFP).

The NWFP governs 19.7 million acres of National Forest System lands across western Oregon, Washington, and Northern California. The plan predates the Roadless Rule and already limits active management through land-use designations such as Late-Successional Reserves and Riparian Reserves, which are managed for conservation, not commercial harvest.

Within the NWFP area, only 20 to 25 percent of federal lands are available for timber harvest under strict environmental review. Yet when the Roadless Rule was added in 2001, it imposed an additional layer of restrictions over many of these same acres, further limiting forest restoration in areas already managed under protective designations.

"Rescinding the Roadless Rule will not undermine the NWFP or environmental safeguards, it simply restores flexibility for local forest professionals to consider limited road access where necessary for science-based restoration or emergency response," Joseph said. "That's essential in these federally-owned forests where treatment options are shrinking while wildfire risks are growing."

Photo: Oregon's Umpqua National Forest, where the 2020 Archie Creek Fire burned severely in an Inventoried Roadless Area near the community of Steamboat. This area is also located in Late-Successional Reserves under the Northwest Forest Plan and also designed as "critical habitat" for the Northern Spotted Owl. (AFRC/Corey Bingaman)

AFRC and Calforests emphasized that rescinding the rule would strengthen domestic wood products manufacturing, support family-wage jobs in rural communities, and improve the pace and scale of forest restoration across the West. The organizations urged the Forest Service to ensure its Environmental Impact Statement reflects the best available science and input from stakeholders who depend on healthy, accessible public lands for their livelihoods, safety, and stewardship work.