CLINTON — The U.S. Forest Service announced intentions to repeal the Roadless Rule last June.
The rule limits road building and logging on nearly 60-million acres of national forest land nationwide, including in Montana.
Conservation groups are demanding transparency and public meetings, with the USFS saying the intent concerns public safety.
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Former USFS members and Jeff Lukas, policy and advocacy manager for Montana Trout Unlimited, gathered for a media event about the Roadless Area Conservation Rule on Friday, about 12 miles up Rock Creek outside of Clinton.
“We're here today to talk about the roadless area conservation rule, its importance for conservation, and why conservation groups oppose the rescission of the roadless rule,” Lukas said.
All speakers, like Brian Riggers, a former roadless coordinator for the Forest Service, touched on why the rule is important to them and why they say it was shaped by public values.
“It was designed to protect these unique values of these places that haven't been developed so that we could have those values and characteristics for long term, so we could make decisions in the future with those because once you change that, once you go into an area and start developing it you don't go back,” Riggers said.
Julie Shea, a former fire behavior specialist for the USFS, says the rule still allows for firefighting efforts in roadless areas.
“It doesn't restrict what is needed for fire prevention and mitigation work. It's not restrictive in terms of what we need to do on the wildland fire suppression side of things. It gives us a lot of flexibility actually, but we have to always be smart about it, especially in the planned scheme of things,” Shea said.
Watch previous coverage: USDA proposes repealing rule that prevents roads on 60M acres of national forests
Even a former zone fisheries biologist for the USFS spoke, referencing studies that showed how roaded areas impact the surrounding environment.
“Once you get over a certain road density, that watershed can't respond to the natural disturbances that happen, fire, floods, the watershed becomes more plastic and rigid and it's less resilient, so the more roads are in a watershed, the less resilient it becomes,” said Shane Hendrickson.
Montana Trout Unlimited will be holding similar meetings across Western Montana.
The meetings are set for:
- Kalispell, Wednesday, March 4. Flathead Valley Community College Arts and Technology 139, 6 - 7:30 p.m.
- Libby, Thursday, March 5. K.W. Maki Theatre, 6 - 7:30 p.m.
- Missoula, Monday, March 9. Missoula Public Library Cooper Room, 6 - 7:30 p.m.
- Hamilton, Tuesday, March 10. Rocky Mtn Grange #116, 6 - 7:30 p.m.
- Butte, Wednesday, March 11. Butte Archives, 6 - 7:30 p.m.
- Bozeman, Thursday, March 12. Gallatin Valley Fairgrounds, Exhibit Hall 2, 6 - 7:30 p.m.
- Helena, Friday, March 13. Holter Art Museum, 6 - 7:30 p.m.
In a statement to MTN, a spokesperson for the USDA stated:
“The intent to rescind the 2001 Roadless Rule is to return to local decision making as part of individual national forest and grassland plans, which include robust public involvement and focus on land management decisions at the right scale. Soil, water and air; plant and animal communities, including threatened, endangered, and sensitive species were identified as substantive issues to be analyzed in the Federal Register Notice of Intent to prepare an environmental impact statement. Over the coming months, there will be additional opportunities for public involvement as the agency prepares and issues a draft environmental impact statement under the National Environmental Policy Act.
It’s important to note that rescission of the 2001 Roadless Rule would not automatically authorize commercial harvest, road construction, or any other on the ground activity. Subsequent decisions regarding land management would need to comply with a specific national forest or grassland management plan and other applicable laws and regulations, all developed through public involvement.
Repealing the Roadless Rule nationally is more important than ever because 24.5 million acres of the Wildland Urban Interface, where forests meet communities, are either in roadless areas or within a mile of roadless – making increased access a major public safety issue. Roads improve access for wildland firefighting when timing is critical and lives are at risk.
As Forest Service Chief Tom Schultz has stated: “The forests we see today are not the same as the forests of 2001. They are dangerously overstocked and increasingly threatened by drought, insect-born disease, and wildfire. Currently, nearly half of our roadless acres – over 28 million – are at high or very high risk of catastrophic wildfire and are in desperate need of treatment. I applaud Secretary Rollins for taking decisive action to provide us with the tools and decision space we need to truly care for our forests and, in turn, protect the people and communities we serve.”
