Take Action to Protect Roadless Rule and Treasured Landscapes

If you've enjoyed exploring Oregon's backcountry, chances are you have looked out in awe over landscapes protected by the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule. The Roadless Rule was championed as a way of providing long-term protection for Inventoried Roadless Areas across the National Forest System. In Oregon some of these protected areas include sections of the Pacific Crest Trail, Mt. Hood's Timberline Trail, Larch Mountain and Eagle Creek in the Columbia River Gorge, Newberry Volcano, the east side of Waldo Lake, and large, undeveloped parts of the Ochocos, Siuslaw, Umpqua, and Wallowa-Whitman National Forests among many other treasured places.

The Roadless Rule protects cherished trails, wildlife habitat and clean drinking water for 80 million people nationally by preventing activities like road construction and logging.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is now moving forward a plan announced last year to eliminate protections for nearly 45 million acres across the country that were established under the 2001 Rule. The current proposal follows presidential executive orders to increase logging, mineral extraction, and oil and gas production on public lands.

Roadless rule removal is also being painted as wildfire prevention, but the current rule explicitly allows the government to manage these places for forest health and fire prevention. Actions like tree cutting and other fuel removal work—and even road construction in cases of imminent fire threat—are allowed. Opening the door to building more roads could actually increase wildfire risk: a 2026 U.S. Forest Service study found that nearly two-thirds of human-caused fires happen along roadsides. (And 95 percent of wildfires are started by humans.)

We also know that in 2023, the USFS estimated their existing road maintenance backlog at $8.6 billion, and now they want to build more?

The public comment period closes September 21, 2026.

Photo by Tom Kloster

Curious about which of your favorite trails in Oregon are in Inventoried Roadless Areas? Check out Oregon Wild's Interactive Map.