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Should Nearly 45 Million Acres of National Forest Be Opened to Roads and Logging?

Fish Lake National Forest
David Childs
/
KUER
Fish Lake National Forest

A 2001 rule crafted by the U.S. Forest Service banned road construction and most commercial logging on nearly 45 million acres of public lands. Now the Trump administration wants to rescind that rule, which it deems overly restrictive.

The so-called roadless rule was crafted in response to what Forest Service leadership at the time saw as decades of rapacious practices by the timber industry. Well, that, and a more than $8 billion backlog in existing road maintenance. But a lot has changed in the past 25 years. The agency’s newest leaders say the rule has stifled rural economic growth and hindered efforts to proactively manage forests and control for wildfires. They're already well into the process of undoing the rule. We’ll talk about where the roadless rule comes from, and how those on both sides of the issue are thinking about its future.

GUESTS: 

Chris Woods | President and CEO of Trout Unlimited. He served as the senior policy and communications advisor to the Chief of the U.S. Forest Service when the roadless rule was crafted.

Kevin Lind | Staff writer on the Ideas and Culture team at the Deseret News, covering the Intermountain West.

Redge Johnson | Director of the Utah Public Land Policy Coordinating Office.

Airdate: Thurs., Oct. 2, 2025 and Sat. Oct. 4, 2025

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