By Lillian Poulsen, Digital Organizer
Access to public lands is something many Americans, and most Montanans, want to protect. These lands are available for hunting, fishing, skiing, biking, and more, allowing us to recreate and enjoy the natural beauty of our state.
The federal and state governments want to make access to these lands more difficult. They want to make money off our protected lands, selling Montana’s natural environment.
The president advanced a formal proposal from the U.S. Forest Service to rescind the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule, which stops road construction and logging on about 45 million acres of national forest land. This rule has protected animal habitats and our forests for 25 years.
We can’t let the government move this proposal forward.
What’s happening?
In August, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced their support for rescinding the Roadless Rule. The federal government argues that this rule is a one-size-fits-all constraint and wants management flexibility.
Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins said the Roadless Rule has led to overgrown and diseased forests by limiting where the U.S. Forest Service can build roads and manage timber. Gov. Gianforte said rescinding this rule will allow Montana to pursue proper forest management on federal lands with local communities in mind.
Before they can overturn the Roadless Rule, the government has to allow for a public comment period. They have already completed the other step – submitting an Environmental Impact Statement – which requires them to share a “detailed statement” because of “a reasonably foreseeable significant effect on the quality of the human environment.”
Our representatives are representing their own interests. They want to sell our lands for their own gain, and are disguising it as a benefit for the public.
What’s at stake
In Montana, six million acres are on the line. The Roadless Rule protects our natural forest land.
Installing roads leads to more ignitions of fires. Humans cause about 85% of wildfires, according to the National Park Service. Research done by the Wilderness Society shows that wildfires are four times more likely to start near roads.
More than 30 forest scientists and researchers published a letter refuting the Trump administration’s claims that rescinding the Roadless Rule will reduce wildfire risks. The researchers found over 30 years across all Forest Service lands that the density of wildfire ignitions was lowest in wilderness and roadless areas. The highest number of wildfire ignitions came from land in close proximity to roads.
“Where there are roads, there are risks,” said Madison Morgan, Montana Public Interest Research Group Missoula Campus Organizer. “To protect ourselves from wildfires, we need less roads, not more.”
Listen to our podcast to hear more from her.
Areas subject to the Roadless Rule contain more than 130,000 kilometers of river and help protect watersheds supplying water to at least 25 million people, according to research in PLOS Water.
The Center for Western Priorities found that revoking the Roadless Rule will reshape wildlife migration patterns and would increase soil erosion, landslide risk, and sediment pollution in waterways. The Indigenous Tribes opposed the repeal, saying it would threaten sacred sites, hunting and fishing, and cultural landscapes.
Montanans get 34% of our drinking water from roadless areas, according to Wild Montana. To protect our access to clean water, we will have to spend more money on filtration systems.
The government may want to sell these lands for mining, oil drilling, and AI data centers, all of which are detrimental to the environment and public health.
Why does the Roadless Rule exist?
The Clinton administration introduced the Roadless Rule as a reaction to the damage already done to our national forests.
The environment struggled with the spread of invasive species, water quality impacted by erosion and sediment, a drastic decrease in the fish population, and the sequestration of grizzly bears to smaller habitats
When it was introduced in 2001, people submitted over 1.6 million comments with 95% supporting the rule.
What you can do
Everyone should have access to roadless, public lands. Protect these areas for future generations by sharing your opinion.
The U.S. Forest Service has extended the public comment period for the repeal of the Roadless Rule until October 6. Submit a public comment before the deadline here: https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2026/09/11/2026-18648/special-areas-roadless-area-conservation#open-comment.
The more public comments we can turn in, the harder it will be for the government to show a reasonable reason to rescind this rule.
When submitting a comment, make sure it’s clear that you are writing about the Roadless Rule, take a stance, back it up with a statistic, and add a personal statement. If all the comments seem too similar or it’s an automated message, those comments may be counted as one.
Thank you for taking the time to protect our lands. We can make a difference by banding together against our tyrannical government.