Trump administration to end protection for 23.5 million hectares of national forests

Straits Times

4 hours ago

Untouched landscapes in the US include Alaska's Tongass National Forest, the largest temperate rainforest in North America. PHOTO: CHRISTOPHER MILLER/NYTIMES
The Trump administration said on June 23 that it would open up some 23.5 million hectares of backcountry in national forests to road construction and development, removing protection that had been in place for a quarter-century.
Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins announced the plan to repeal the 2001 'roadless rule' that had preserved the wild nature of nearly one-third of the land in national forests in the United States.
Ms Rollins said the regulation was outdated.
'Once again, President (Donald) Trump is removing absurd obstacles to common-sense management of our natural resources by rescinding the overly restrictive roadless rule,' Ms Rollins said in a statement.
She said the repeal 'opens a new era of consistency and sustainability for our nation's forests'.
Environmental groups said the plan could destroy some of America's untouched landscapes, and promised to challenge it in court.
The unspoiled land in question includes Alaska's Tongass National Forest, the largest temperate rainforest in North America; Reddish Knob in the Shenandoah mountains, one of the highest points in Virginia; and millions of hectares of the Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness in Idaho.
'Most Americans value these pristine backcountry areas for their sense of wildness, for the clean water they provide, for the fishing and hunting and wildlife habitat,' said Mr Chris Wood, chief executive of Trout Unlimited, an environmental group.
When then President Bill Clinton used executive authority to protect the forests in 2001, it was hailed by conservationists as the most significant step since former president Theodore Roosevelt laid the foundation for the national forest system.
It blocked logging, road building, mining and drilling on 23.5 million hectares of the remaining undeveloped national forest lands.
Mr Wood, who served as a senior policy adviser to the chief of the US Forest Service when the rule was developed, recalled that it had wide public support.
'I don't think the timber industry wants to get into these areas,' he said. 'They're wildly controversial and they're too expensive to access. I believe when they take this to rule-making, they will realise how wildly unpopular getting rid of that rule is and how little gain there is to be had from it.'
The announcement comes as the Trump administration is moving to significantly increase logging in the US.
Mr Trump has called on Cabinet secretaries to bypass endangered species laws and other environmental protection measures to boost the domestic supply of timber. NYTIMES
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