The Trump administration recently announced its plans to repeal a 20 year-old policy that prevented road construction and logging on some federal public lands.
The Roadless Rule, established by the Clinton administration in 2001, prevents road building for logging on over 58 million acres of federal forest land.
The Trump administration argues the rule restricts timber sales and increases wildfire risk. The proposed repeal comes after a slate of executive orders this spring aimed at increasing logging on public lands. The Trump Administration hasn’t taken official action to revoke the rule yet.
The Roadless Rule applies to 6 million acres in Montana.
Beth Dodson, a forest operations professor at the University of Montana says these roadless areas are that way for a reason.
"Generally, they're steep, they're relatively remote," she said.
Building roads is incredibly expensive, and land management agencies already face a backlog of deferred maintenance on existing roads. Dodson said it’s unlikely that timber harvests would even be economically viable in areas protected by the roadless rule.
"The majority of timber sales that go no-bid in the state of Montana, or really anywhere, it's generally because the road costs are too high," Dodson said. "And that's without repealing the roadless rule."
Dodson said that the land currently available for logging is enough to cover the increased harvest demands coming from the Trump administration.
Environmental groups warn removing the rule would destroy habitat, harm wildlife and impair water quality.
Jenny Harbine, a lawyer with the environmental law firm Earthjustice, said this policy, combined with other rollbacks of environmental protections by the Trump administration, creates a troubling cascade effect.
"It's a sad day when we have our elected officials dialing back the progress that former administrations have made over the past decades to ensure that we retain these last intact ecosystems."
Harbine said Earthjustice is prepared to take legal action if the Trump administration moves forward with the repeal.
