By: Patrick Lohmann and Mary Steurer (ND Monitor)
United States Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins announced this week that her agency intends to repeal a 24-year-old rule that prohibits road construction and timber harvesting on 91,000 square miles of federal Forest Service land.
Rollins, speaking Monday at the Western Governors’ Association meeting in New Mexico, said the protections President Bill Clinton imposed for “inventoried roadless areas” in 2001 hamper forest management and wildfire prevention. She also noted that repealing the ban would get more “logs on trucks” as the Trump administration seeks to rekindle a nationwide logging industry in federal forests.
“The heavy hand of Washington will no longer inhibit the management of our nation’s forests. Under the leadership of President Trump, this administration knows timber production is critical to our nation’s well-being,” Rollins said.
The announcement drew swift condemnation from several environmentalist groups, including the Wilderness Society and the Center for Western Priorities, which described it as a gift to private logging interests that undermines a long-successful conservation policy.
“It’s ridiculous for Secretary Rollins to spin this as a move that will reduce wildfire risk or improve recreation. Commercial logging exacerbates climate change, increasing the intensity of wildfires,” said Rachael Hamby, policy director for the Center for Western Priorities, in an emailed statement. “This is nothing more than a massive giveaway to timber companies at the expense of every American and the forests that belong to all of us.”
More than 250,000 acres of federal land in North Dakota are categorized Inventoried Roadless Areas. Most of it is in the western part of the state.
Some road construction and reconstruction is already allowed on this land, according to a U.S. Forest Service map.
The U.S. Forest Service did not respond to an email seeking more specific information about how the policy change could affect North Dakota.
The office of U.S. Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D., called repealing the rule a step in the right direction.
“While road construction is currently permitted, rescission of the 2001 Roadless Rule removes the threat of future restrictions inhibiting access to multiple use activities like grazing and energy production,” the office said in a statement to the North Dakota Monitor.
North Dakota Gov. Kelly Armstrong, a Republican who attended the Western Governors’ Association meeting, also praised Rollins’ proposal.
“Increasing access to public lands is a win for North Dakota, and rescinding this rule further enables responsible federal lands management, including the continuation of responsible grazing practices,” Armstrong said in a statement.
Shannon Straight, executive director of the Badland Conservation Alliance, said that the proposed repeal of the rule is part of a larger effort by the Trump administration and Republican lawmakers to strip away public land protections.
“We’re losing our wilderness, we’re losing our habitat,” Straight said.
He also said millions of acres of public lands could be sold off under the “big, beautiful bill.” North Dakota isn’t one of them, according to an analysis published last week by the Wilderness Society, though the bill’s text is still being revised.
Straight said that regardless, North Dakotans that care about public lands should still urge the state’s congressional delegation to oppose the sales.
The roadless rule announcement drew mixed reactions from the western governors on stage at the Eldorado Hotel in Santa Fe. Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, a Republican, said the state has been trying to repeal the rule there for years, saying it has left huge swaths of forest untreated and more-wildfire prone.
“A good forest is like a garden. You actually have to tend it and take care of it. If we do this the right way, we can prevent fires and improve production,” he said.
But New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham took a moment to defend President Clinton’s rule, which he implemented in the final days of his second term in office.
“Climate change is the biggest problem in fueling these damaging fires,” she said, drawing applause.
“Well, we may agree to disagree on that, but that’s a debate for another time,” Rollins said.
“No, it’s a debate right here in this room,” the governor responded. “You’re in New Mexico and we’re very clear about that.”
Lujan Grisham went on to thank Rollins for trying to give states “more independence” when it comes to forest management, and also said Clinton himself would likely appreciate the push for more wildfire mitigation.
Rollins previewed the announcement during a news conference, during which she also discussed the current wildfires in the state, and referred to the U.S. Forest service employees flanking her as “patriots.”
For too long, she said, “western states, especially those with large swaths of land administered by our incredible Forest Service, have been inhibited from innovating because of burdensome regulations imposed by the federal government…This has a huge impact on so many communities, especially when the federal government ties its own hands with burdensome regulations and does not properly manage the land.”
