As nearly everyone who hunts, hikes, camps, climbs, paddles or otherwise recreates on public lands knows well, during the first half of 2025 we fended off repeated attempts in Congress—spearheaded by Utah Senator Mike Lee—to put public lands on the chopping block, selling them off to the highest bidder.
However, largely lost in the outcry over Sen. Lee’s proposed public lands liquidation via the Big Beautiful Bill Act was an announcement by Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins: The Department of Agriculture is rescinding the 2001 Roadless Rule that has prohibited road construction and timbering on 58.5 million acres of our national forest land.
These lands, occupying 43 different states as well as the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico, will now be exposed to road building and logging. The Trump administration announced in June that it plans to repeal the rule. Public comments collected by the government regarding the rule, however, demonstrate an overwhelming rejection of that plan.
An analysis conducted by the Center for Western Priorities (CWP) found that over 99% of the public comments submitted during the summer oppose the Trump administration’s plan to rescind the Roadless Rule. CWP found 92.2% of comments opposed the rule recission, while just 0.6% were in support, and 0.2% were neutral.
When President Theodore Roosevelt created the U.S. Forest Service in 1905, he intended that forests be managed for conservation and sustainability. But over the years our national forests were subjected to widespread industrial logging, including the clearcutting of old-growth stands, causing the destruction of wildlife habitat and degradation of clean water for downstream communities.
By the 1990s more than 380,000 miles of roads crisscrossed national forests, largely built with federal subsidies to support timber production. At that time most of those roads were in need of major repair, adding up to an $8.4 billion maintenance backlog for the Forest Service. “In the 1980s and ‘90s, the Forest Service was one of the world’s top road-building agencies in terms of miles of roads built,” founding BHA Board member Ben Long wrote in Outdoor Life (May 2019). “But in 2001, the agency put the brakes on pioneering new roads.”
“In 2001 the Forest Service established the Roadless Area Conservation Rule, a collaborative management approach adopted following one of the most extensive public engagement campaigns in the history of federal rulemaking,” Bjorn Dihle wrote in the Winter 2019 Backcountry Journal. “Under this rule, inventoried roadless areas all across America are protected from old growth logging, mining, road building and other development.”
Most of the USA’s 192 million acres of national forest—more land than California and Nevada combined—are crisscrossed by dirt, gravel or asphalt roads, the majority built to serve logging trucks. In Colorado, there are only 4.4 million roadless acres spread across eight national forests, and in my boyhood home state of Minnesota, a paltry 62,000 acres in the Superior National Forest.
Today just 8 percent of the national forest acreage in Colorado lies beyond 1 mile of a road (only 4 percent for BLM lands), and there are enough Forest Service roads (17,700 miles) in the state to go from the Kansas border to Utah and back … 17 times! Minnesota has less than 4 percent of its original old-growth forest remaining. Between national and state forest roads and trails, along with other designated routes, there are over 16,800 miles of motorized routes on Minnesota’s public lands.
While some roads are important for providing hunters and anglers access to the lands where they hunt and fish, too many roads are associated with degraded streams and rivers, increased big game vulnerability, and fewer mature bucks and bulls, often resulting in shorter seasons and fewer available tags. Elk occur in greater densities in roadless areas compared to roaded areas and hunter success is higher in roadless areas.
“The Roadless Area Conservation Rule … has stood as the law of the land for the past two plus decades,” Trout Unlimited President and CEO Chris Wood said. “Roadless and wilderness areas almost always have the healthiest populations of native trout and salmon and are often the sources of the coldest, cleanest water.”
Roadless For A Reason
Rob Drieslein, Outdoor News Managing Editor and 2022 recipient of BHA’s Ted Trueblood Award, interviewed Mike Dombeck (in the July 4th, 2025 issue), who led the rulemaking process as chief of the U.S. Forest Service under former President Clinton. Originally from northwestern Wisconsin, Dombeck spent a career in public service, mostly in fisheries, earning multiple degrees, including a masters from the U of M. He also worked in the first Bush administration and was acting director of the Bureau of Land Management in 1994.
While serving as chief of the U.S. Forest Service (1997-2001), Dombeck was struck by the fervor and number of comments on the Roadless Area Conservation Rule. During the three years that the policy was being developed, the Forest Service received an astounding 1.8 million comments. “Not only were the numbers huge,” says Dombeck, “but there was overwhelming support for even greater protection.”
“We have 386,000 miles of roads in the national forest system now—more miles than the U.S. Interstate Highway System … how many roads do we need?” Dombeck asked. “I always viewed the rule as conservative. It doesn’t cost taxpayers any money. Not building roads means they don’t have to be maintained. That’s expensive out West, with landslides, etc. When we wrote it, the road maintenance backlog was significant and it’s probably still growing.
“It’s withstood challenges including 11 court cases and Supreme Court review that kept lower court decisions. We did our homework in implementing this rule with more than 600 public hearings,” Dombeck said. “Reviewing 1.8M comments is very labor intensive, and 90% of those comments were supportive of the rule, and in fact most comments wanted more restrictions on roads, not less.
Ray Higgins, executive vice president of Minnesota Timber Producers, said that while more wood on the market is good for the industry, “it’s not going to make a ton of difference.” “There’s a reason these are roadless areas … They’re hard to access. They’re not close to any forest products mill like a paper mill or a big sawmill,” Higgins told the Duluth News Tribune.
“So it’s not like we've been knocking on the door trying to get the timber,” Higgins said, “because it is hard to access.”
“The best hunting and fishing is off the beaten path. With public lands, there are no ‘No Trespassing’ signs, and for the guy who can’t afford a guided trip, keeping wildlands wild is key to providing a quality experience,” Mike Dombeck added. “That’s being whittled away acre by acre, minute by minute all across the country. This should cause a massive uproar across the sportsmen’s community.
Big Wild Country
“Part of keeping good, healthy elk herds on national forests is to make sure they have ample secure habitat—big wild country with large blocks of land without motorized disturbance,” former Montana BHA chapter chair Greg Munther wrote in Bugle Magazine. “If we continue to allow destruction of habitat security on our national forests, we are only hurting ourselves.
That’s why BHA strongly supports the reintroduction of the Roadless Area Conservation Act, led by Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA) and Representative Andrea Salinas (D-OR). This legislation would codify the Roadless Rule into law, ensuring that protections for our most rugged and remote national forest lands can’t be undone by administrative rollbacks now and in the future.
“Forcing Lee and his cronies to back down was a signal victory, well worth celebrating,” Chris Madson wrote (on July 11) in The Land Ethic (“Public land grab: A history”). “So find a friend, face your favorite corner of public land, the place that always brings a smile to your face, and raise a libation to success. Then get a good night’s sleep. Tomorrow morning, they’ll be at it again.”
“Unfortunately, today, too many hunting groups, it seems, are trapped in echo chambers or information feedback loops of our own making. We’ve created alternate-reality bubbles that are collapsing around us,” I wrote in an October 2025 Duluth News Tribune opinion piece. “While we’re focused on the perennial battles with ‘the antis’ over trapping, predators, or guns, the habitat that sustains it all is being systematically degraded or destroyed by more roads, trails, mines, and oil and gas wells — or even sold off to the highest billionaire bidders … Backcountry Hunters & Anglers … formed to focus on habitat: We are ‘the voice for our wild public lands, waters, and wildlife,’ as stated at our website.”
“Let’s be clear: public lands are not a partisan issue,” our former President and CEO Patrick Berry said. “They are an American one, rooted in the very (principles) of democracy, where it’s all equal ground — on trailheads and mountain peaks, in trout streams and grasslands, and in the campfires that invite us to share in the backcountry experience.” “Our public lands are not commodities to be auctioned off, sold, or gifted to … billionaires,” I added in a June 2025 Duluth News Tribune commentary.
“We are hard-pressed to think of many other policies carried on through six presidents—three Republican and three Democratic. The roadless rule’s staying power reflects its popularity,” Mike Dombeck and Chris Wood emphasized in a September 2025 Seattle Times opinion piece. This is why BHA was built. For this opportunity. For this fight! We know the billionaires will be back, and we’ll be waiting. Join us! To learn more, and to support the Roadless Area Conservation Act, visit: https://www.backcountryhunters.org/take_action#/496
David Lien is co-chair of Colorado Backcountry Hunters & Anglers, a former Air Force missile launch officer, and author. In 2014 he was recognized by Field & Stream as a “Hero of Conservation.” During 2019 he was the recipient of BHA’s Mike Beagle-Chairman’s Award “for outstanding effort on behalf of Backcountry Hunters & Anglers.”
Additional/Related Information
-“Hunters, anglers face threats as Roadless Rule is targeted.” The Journal: 10/10/25.
-“Support for the Roadless Rule.” Colorado Springs (Colo.) Gazette: 9/26/25.
-“Support For Roadless Rule, Which Protects Colorado Public Lands, ‘Damn Near Universal.’” Colorado Times Recorder: 9/25/25.
-“Autumn calls: Keeping up the fight for public lands.” Durango Herald: 9/17/25.
-“Billionaire buzzards threaten best elk habitat.” Aspen Daily News: 9/9/25.
-“Roadless Rule safeguards pristine public lands.” Grand Junction (Colo.) Daily Sentinel: 9/2/25.
-“Reconciliation bill puts habitat and hunting on the chopping block.” Montrose Press: 8/2/25.
-Mark Kenyon (founder of “Wired To Hunt” and MeatEater’s resident “whitetail guy”) was the recipient of BHA’s 2025 Ted Trueblood Award
-Wiredtohunt (8/1/25). “Folks in Washington DC are trying to get rid of the ‘Roadless Rule,’ a tool that has helped protect many of the last unroaded places in our nation. Tune in to our latest podcast to learn all about it with Chris Wood, CEO of Trout Unlimited and former Forest Service staffer who helped develop the rule in the first place.”
-“Reconciliation Bill ‘Gutted’ Public Lands Protection.” Pagosa Daily Post: 7/24/25.
-Jim Pattiz. “They Gutted Public Lands in the Reconciliation Bill – And No One’s Talking About It: While the headlines were on Mike Lee, Congress passed a bill that ransacks our public lands. Here’s the only complete breakdown of what’s in it.” MTJP: 7/11/25.
-Michael Dombeck was chief of the U.S. Forest Service from 1997-2001 and Chris Wood was senior policy adviser to former U.S. Forest Service Chief Mike Dombeck; he is president/CEO of Trout Unlimited. “Why the Trump administration shouldn’t rescind the roadless rule.” The Seattle Times: 9/17/25.
-David A. Lien. “Roadless Rule Rollback.” Backcountry Hunters & Anglers: 7/14/25.
-Nadia Marji. “USDA Rescinds Near Quarter Century Old Protections for 58.5 Million Acres of National Forest Lands.” Backcountry Hunters & Anglers: 6/24/25.
-Associated Press. “Trump administration plans to rescind ‘roadless rule.’” Outdoor News: 6/24/25.
-Maria Cantwell, United States Senator for Washington. “Sens. Cantwell & Gallego, Reps. Salinas & Ansari Lead Bicameral Legislation to Permanently Preserve Last Remaining Wild Forest Lands: Bill would codify Roadless Rule, which protects almost 60 million acres of America’s remaining pristine National Forest Lands.” Press Release: 6/11/25.
-Ben Long, founding BHA Board member. “Roadless Area Rules Could Be Rolled Back in Tongass National Forest: About half of the 17 million-acre national forest is roadless.” Outdoor Life: 5/24/19.
-Ken Rait. “Challenges to ‘Roadless Rule’ Threaten Millions of Acres of Forest Exemptions: could open old-growth areas in Alaska and Utah to logging.” Pew Charitable Trusts: 2/25/19.
-David A. Lien. Wilderness Road Areas Need Protection.” Greeley Tribune: 7/10/11.
-Brennan Sang. “TU praises Ritter for clarifying roadless intent.” Trout Unlimited: 4/16/07.
-Western Watersheds Project Roadless Rule link.
-Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership (TRCP). Backcountry Bounty: Colorado: October 2008. http://www.trcp.org/documents/reports/CORoadlessReport.pdf
-Roadless Area Conservation Rulemaking Facts. https://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/stelprdb5137368.pdf
- Kate Groetzinger, Center for Western Priorities Communications Manager. “Analysis: 99%-plus oppose rescinding the ‘Roadless Rule.’ Americans loudly tell the Forest Service: Don’t do this.” Outdoor News: 10/3/25, p. 3.
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