Roadless Rule Rescission Could Open up Virginia Forestland for Road Development, Logging

Trump Administration to End Conservation Rule Protecting Nearly 60 Million Acres of Forests

The Trump administration says it is ending the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule, which protects nearly 60 million acres in the National Forest System from logging and the construction of new roads. The environmental law group Earthjustice has promised a legal challenge. The Sierra Club’s forest campaign blasted the decision, writing, “Once again, the Trump administration is ignoring the voices of millions of Americans to pursue a corporate g…

Trump Says Roads Prevent Wildfires. The Truth Is More Complicated

Experts say repealing the "Roadless Rule" won't help stop fires, but it will help loggers.

A road to healthier forests

The US Department of Agriculture rescinded the 2001 Roadless Rule last week, a regulation that restricted road building and timber extraction in about 30 percent of land managed by the National Forest System. Judging the pushback from environmentalists, you might think that President Trump was selling Yosemite to a logging company. But the red-tape cutting actually increases public recreation access and opens neglected forests to fire-mitigation…

85,000 acres of Tennessee’s national forests open for logging under Trump administration plan

About 85,000 acres of backcountry in Tennessee could be opened for road construction, mining and logging under a Trump administration plan to remove protections from the most remote and untouched portions of U.S. national forests. U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke…

Roadless Rule rescission could open up Virginia forestland for road development, logging

A forest in the Wetlands of James River Park in Richmond. (Sarah Vogelsong/Virginia Mercury) The U.S. The Department of Agriculture is about to undo the 2001 Roadless Rule that has protected 59 million acres of national forests from being developed or logged for decades. Virginia boasts the most inventoried roadless areas in the southeast, 394,000 acres, which would be opened up for development once the rule is axed. The state has over 1.6 milli…

Trump admin bid would open 80,000 plus acres of area forest to ...