Undoing the Roadless Rule would open the door to clear-cutting old-growth forests. Help stop this before it's too late.
Photo by Howie Garber
The Trump administration is trying to open 58.5 million acres of national forest land across the country to logging and extraction. Help us stop efforts to destroy public land.
The Trump administration has announced plans to gut the Roadless Rule – one of the most critical public land protections in the United States – giving corporations free rein to clearcut, mine, and pave over some of the most ecologically sensitive and wild areas we have left.
The Roadless Area Conservation Rule, adopted in 2001, protects nearly 58.5 million acres of national forest land from new road construction and large-scale logging. These roadless areas are often the last remaining intact ecosystems in the United States—home to old-growth trees, threatened species, and clean drinking water for millions of people.
For over two decades, the Roadless Rule has protected critical wildlife corridors, prevented deforestation, and maintained wild lands in their natural state. It's one of the most successful and cost-effective conservation tools in modern U.S. history.
Here's what's at stake if the Roadless Rule is rescinded:
58.5 million acres on the chopping block
From the Tongass in Alaska to the Southern Rockies to the Appalachians, an area of pristine lands larger than the state of Idaho could soon be carved up by bulldozers and exploited by timber and mining companies.
More roads, more logging, more pollution, more fire
Building roads through intact forests doesn't just lead to tree loss. It disrupts ecosystems, severs habitat, accelerates erosion, increases wildfire risk, and releases stored carbon into the atmosphere.
A false promise of "management"
The USDA calls this “responsible forest management.” But the science—and the history—say otherwise. In fact, these are the lands that have largely avoided the impacts of mismanagement like clearcuts and fire suppression. Let's call it what it is: this is about opening the door to industry.
The Roadless Rule isn't gone yet—but the threat is real, and the clock is ticking
The Sierra Club is fighting back right now. We're pressuring Congress to pass the Roadless Area Conservation Act, which would secure Roadless protections across the country. We're mobilizing legal teams, organizing local communities, and putting pressure on lawmakers and federal agencies to defend the Roadless Rule before it's too late. And we're using every tool at our disposal to secure protections for public land across the country.
We've stopped devastating rollbacks on Arctic protections before. Under the Biden administration, we helped re-establish protections for the Tongass. And just last month, we helped save millions of acres of public land from being sold to billionaires and corporations for cheap. Now, with your support, we will defend our roadless forests once again.
The forests can't speak for themselves. But you can.
