USDA Eyes Roads in Roadless Forests: Tongass Timber Temptation?
Published Date: 8/29/2025
Notice
Summary
The USDA is planning to change how it manages about 44.7 million acres of roadless National Forest lands by undoing the 2001 rule that mostly banned building roads and cutting trees there. This means local officials will get more say in decisions about roads and logging, especially in places like Alaska’s Tongass National Forest. The agency is asking for public comments soon, and these changes could affect forest use and local economies.
Analyzed Economic Effects
3 provisions identified: 0 benefits, 0 costs, 3 mixed.
Rescinding Roadless Protections for 44.7M Acres
USDA proposes to rescind the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule for about 44.7 million acres of National Forest System lands. That rule currently prohibits road construction, road reconstruction, and timber harvesting in inventoried roadless areas; rescinding it would return those decisions to local officials and forest-level planning.
Tongass National Forest Excluded From Roadless Rule
The proposed rule would expressly exclude the Tongass National Forest in Alaska from the 2001 Roadless Rule, per Executive Order 14153. That exclusion means the 2001 prohibitions on road construction, road reconstruction, and timber harvesting would not apply to the Tongass.
Idaho and Colorado Roadless Rules Kept
State-specific roadless rules for Idaho and Colorado at 36 CFR 294 Subparts C and D will be retained and are excluded from this proposed change. That means the 2001 Roadless Rule rescission does not apply to those state-specific rules.
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