Department of Ag advances plan to rescind Roadless Rule
Published 1:30 am Saturday, August 30, 2025
EVERETT — The U.S. Department of Agriculture, the parent agency to the U.S. Forest Service, opened public comment on Friday as its next step to rescind the 2001 Roadless Rule, which currently protects 58 million acres of national forests including parts of Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest from road building and logging.
If rescinded, 45 million acres including 336,000 acres in Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest could be subject to management.
On Friday, the Department of Agriculture Forest Service published a notice in the Federal Register, stating its intent to create an environmental impact statement of a rollback and notifying the public has until Sept. 19 to submit comments.
The notice also detailed the administration’s reasoning for rescinding the rule, arguing the rollback “would provide discretion for local land managers to tailor management, as appropriate, to local land conditions,” and allow flexibility for “timber production, recreation, wildfire suppression, and fuel reduction treatments.”
Sno-Isle Sierra Club chapter Lobby Team Member Cynthia Jones said the administration’s logic counteracts scientific studies and economic sensibility.
“Multiple studies have shown that over 85% of all wildfires are caused by human activity – like the current Bear Gulch fire in Olympic National Park. And 95% of those start within one-half mile of a road,” she wrote in an email, adding that “Easily accessible timber was cut down decades ago. Roadless Areas are typically hard to reach – there’s a reason they haven’t already been logged.”
New roads would increase maintenance for an already behind U.S. Service, which has a maintenance backlog for roads and bridges of over $8.6 million and in Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie could threaten critical habitat for endangered marbled murrelets.
In June the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife sent out its recommendation to keep the small sea birds on the endangered species list. The birds were first listed as threatened in 1992, escalating to endangered in 2016.
“Despite efforts to conserve nesting habitat and reduce threats at sea, marbled murrelets continue to decline in Washington,” said Jen Mannas, the department’s marine species lead in the June press release. “Without effective action soon, Washington’s marbled murrelet population may become extinct in Washington in the coming decades.”
Eliza Aronson: 425-339-3434; eliza.aronson@heraldnet.com; X: @ElizaAronson.
Eliza’s stories are supported by the Herald’s Environmental and Climate Reporting Fund.
