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Repeal of U.S. Roadless Rule could threaten drinking water for 25 million people
Repeal of U.S. Roadless Rule could threaten drinking water for 25 million people. Originally published by Mongabay.
By Liz Kimbrough · 2026-09-05T23:10:49.397Z
The drinking water for about 25 million Americans starts https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pwat.0000538 in the backcountry of the national forests, on land where roads are few by design. A rule the Trump administration proposed last week could open that land to roads and logging. On Aug. 18, the U.S. Department of Agriculture filed a proposed rule https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2026/08/20/2026 16965/special areas roadless area conservation to fully rescind the U.S. Forest Service’s 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule https://www.regulations.gov/docket/FS 2025 0001?utm source=chatgpt.com , which bars new road construction and commercial logging on about 45 million acres https://www.fs.usda.gov/managing land/planning/roadless 18 million hectares of national forest. It was published in the Federal Register on Aug. 20, opening a 30 day public comment period https://roadless.org/ that closes at midnight on Sept. 21. The proposed rule has drawn widespread criticism among wildland firefighters, environmental organizations, lawmakers and scientists. Much of the debate has centered on logging and fire. But researchers say some of the largest costs run downstream, into the taps of people’s homes. Forests work as natural filters. They intercept rain, slow runoff, and trap sediment before water reaches streams, rivers and reservoirs. Roads and logging can undo that work, casting off sediment that utility companies must clean and driving up treatment costs. A 2024 study https://www.mdpi.com/1999 4907/15/3/454 in Forests found that forest roads contribute up to 90 percent of sediment loads in streams and are “seriously disrupting the safety and stability of watersheds.” A study https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pwat.0000538 published in July in PLOS Water estimated that about 25 million Americans draw drinking water from watersheds fed by roadless areas. In Colorado, New Mexico and Montana, those watersheds supply more than a third of the population. Southern California’s Angeles National Forest alone serves more than 4 million customers. New Mexico’s congressional delegation notes the state’s forests supply more than 75% https://www.energy.senate.gov/2025/9/heinrich n m delegation demand trump administration omit new mexico from roadless rule rescission of the water for Albuquerque and Santa Fe, New Mexio. David Mildrexler, a scientist with the Partnership for Policy Integrity who monitors timber sales and hikes roadless country across the West, has seen the difference on the ground. In intact watersheds, he told Mongabay, “the water is able to move as it naturally does through the ground, instead of being intercepted by this deep road cut, captured, put into a ditch or put into a culvert.” He and his colleagues have begun calling these forests “critical drinking infrastructure.” Mildrexler co authored a separate analysis https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2026.111950 in Biological Conservation that found roadless areas rank among the highest integrity forests in the country, often rivaling formally protected wilderness. Building roads into them would degrade clean water and wildlife habitat, the authors wrote, calling the case for repeal “fiscally misguided and ecologically flawed.” The fiscal argument starts with roads the government already cannot afford. U.S. national forests already have many miles of roads, eight times more than the entire U.S. interstate highway system https://www.fs.usda.gov/eng/road mgt/overview.shtml . The Forest Service carries a $10.8 billion maintenance backlog https://www.fs.usda.gov/eng/road mgt/overview.shtml on the roads it has, and these new roads into remote terrain would be among the costliest to build, Mildrexler said. “Many roads are heavily eroded and prone to landslides, and driving vehicles on them can spread invasive species. They need billions of dollars in repairs,” Patrick Parenteau, Professor of Law Emeritus at Vermont Law & Graduate School, wrote in The Conversation https://theconversation.com/why trumps plan to rescind the roadless rule protecting national forests will struggle in court 290496 . “If the Trump administration goes through with rescinding the rule,” Parenteau said, “you can count on lawsuits, and they won’t be easy for the administration to win.” Recreation and tourism could also face costs. “Wyoming’s roadless areas are the elk country, trout streams, hunting grounds, and backcountry places that define this state,” Julia Stuble, Wyoming state director for The Wilderness Society, said in a statement. However, recreation advocacy groups such as the Blue Ribbon Coalition, the California Association of 4 Wheel Drive Clubs, United Four Wheel Drive Associations, and the American Council of Snowmobile Associations support https://blueribboncoalition.org/roadless rule/ the recission. How much wood would a road let out USDA says allowing roads would “reduce regulatory burden” and hand decisions to local forest managers. The document also ties the change to logging, citing an executive order https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2025/03/06/2025 03695/immediate expansion of american timber production in which President Trump declared the country has ample wood “but heavy handed Federal policies have prevented full utilization of these resources.” “For too long, outdated restrictions have kept tens of millions of forested acres off limits to the very treatments that improve forest health and reduce wildfire risk to our communities,” Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said in a statement https://www.usda.gov/about usda/news/press releases/2026/08/18/usda acts remove roadless rule restrictions exacerbate rising wildfire risk . By the USDA’s own estimate https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2026/08/20/2026 16965/special areas roadless area conservation , the change could open about 4.8 million acres 1.9 million hectares to timber harvest. USDA stresses that the rule orders no logging or road building on its own and that logging all of that land is “unlikely.” This essentially uses taxpayer money to build roads so private companies can profit, Mildexter told Mongabay. “Road construction and logging would fragment wildlife habitat, increase sediment in rivers and streams, and degrade the clean water and medicines our people depend on,” wrote the Lac Vieux Desert Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians, a federally recognized Indian Tribe located in Michigan, in a letter https://usfs public.app.box.com/s/gomzq6rruwsds8rw50o3j3g429utj8f6/file/2415113961556?sb=/details to Senator Rollins. Fighting fire with roads? The administration’s central claim is that repeal will prevent wildfires. The research cuts the other way. Most U.S. wildfires are started by people https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1617394114 , and most human ignitions occur within about 50 meters https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s42408 026 00450 2 164 feet of a road. “Constructing new logging roads into roadless areas will increase human caused wildfire ignitions by careless recreationists, criminal arsonists, or simple accidents,” Carson States, a ten season firefighter and engine boss from Oregon, said in a statement from FUSEE https://fusee.org/policy advocacy racr , Firefighters United for Safety, Ethics, and Ecology. The proposed rule https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2026/08/20/2026 16965/special areas roadless area conservation concedes that “greater public access can increase human caused ignition potential in some locations,” while arguing new roads could still help crews protect communities. “There are already a ton of roads through the national forests that are impossible to drive on without bucking downed logs for hours,” said Anthony Perez Orozco, engine crewmember with the Forest Service in central Idaho. “The poorly maintained condition of most existing logging roads make engines seldom used for initial attack.” Smokejumpers, heli rappelers, and helitack crews, https://www.fs.usda.gov/sites/default/files/fs media/fs document/aviation history.pdf which enter from the above, have long been used to manage fires https://www.fs.usda.gov/sites/default/files/legacy files/fire management today/61 2 0.pdf . Bill Avey, who spent decades managing Montana’s national forests, wrote https://www.lewistownnews.com/commentary/opinion the roadless rule doesnt stop firefighting heres proof from the field/article 943f92dc 4952 41fc b2c7 07e3303c4ad6.html that the current roadless rule already allows fire suppression, small diameter thinning, prescribed fire and emergency action. “In my experience, the Roadless Rule doesn’t pose an insurmountable barrier to good land management; it simply requires baseline analysis and thought before impacting the landscape,” he wrote. “Logging roads are designed for resource extraction, not wildfire suppression,” Timothy Ingalsbee, FUSEE’s executive director and a former Forest Service engine crewmember, said in a statement. The administration’s aim, he added, “is to get the timber, ore and oil out, not put fires out.” Wildlife would feel the roads too. Roadless areas cover just 2% of the land in the lower 48 states, yet provide habitat for 57% of the country’s vulnerable terrestrial species, according to an analysis https://defenders.org/newsroom/trump administration advances roadless rule repeal expense of wildlife clean water and by the NGO Defenders of Wildlife. Roads “lower habitat connectivity” and bring higher mortality and lower reproduction, disrupting the movements of deer, elk, black bears and bighorn sheep, New Mexico’s lawmakers wrote https://www.energy.senate.gov/2025/9/heinrich n m delegation demand trump administration omit new mexico from roadless rule rescission in a September 2025 letter asking USDA to exclude the state’s 1.6 million protected acres 650,000 hectares . A Center for Biological Diversity report , Deadly Incursions https://biologicaldiversity.org/programs/public lands/pdfs/Deadly Incursions report.pdf , found that scrapping the rule would put 7.4 million acres 3 million hectares of designated endangered species critical habitat and nearly 1,800 miles 2900 kilometers of protected rivers and streams at risk, affecting species such as grizzly bears, wolverines, salmon, Canada lynxes, American martens and wolves. Some of that habitat crosses the border. New Mexico’s Gila and the adjoining Apache Sitgreaves National Forest in Arizona are the recovery grounds https://www.fws.gov/program/conserving mexican wolf/what we do for the endangered Mexican gray wolf. Farther west, the jaguars https://wildlandsnetwork.org/across boundaries/mexico/ in Arizona’s Sky Islands belong to a breeding population centered in Sonora, Mexico. The New Mexico delegation noted that jaguars avoid habitat within 2.8 miles 4.5 kilometers of a road. Alaska’s Tongass https://alaskapublic.org/news/environment/2026 08 20/federal government officially files to rescind the roadless rule , the largest national forest and the biggest block of roadless land at stake, holds the world’s largest temperate rainforest, dense brown bear populations, and millions of wild salmon. Roughly 9 million acres https://publiclandswatch.org/sites/tongass roadless rule/ 3.6 million hectares of it could lose protection if the roadless rule is rescinded. This forest stores 20% https://news.mongabay.com/2022/06/end old growth logging in carbon rich crown jewel of u s forests study/ of the carbon held in all U.S. national forests and supports roughly 40% https://www.audubon.org/alaska/policy/tongass national forest of North American bird species. Indigenous opposition The Tongass region is home to tens of thousands of Indigenous people. And many other roadless areas are integral to the lives Tribes across the nation. “For the Tribes of the Tongass, these forests are not merely resources—they are our homelands. Our communities rely on them for cultural, nutritional, spiritual, and economic sustenance,” a delegation of thirteen tribal southern Alaska Tribal Governments wrote in a letter https://usfs public.app.box.com/s/gomzq6rruwsds8rw50o3j3g429utj8f6/file/2415113961556?sb=/details to Secretary Rollins. This was one of dozens of letters from tribes across the country submitted to the US Forest Service during an abbreviated comment period in September of 2025. USDA’s own summary https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2026/08/20/2026 16965/special areas roadless area conservation acknowledged that the rescission “would have substantial direct effects on Indian Tribes” and that most Tribes it consulted oppose the repeal, viewing it as a threat to sovereignty, sacred sites and water. “Once you lose these places,” Mildrexler said, “you can’t get them back.” Banner image of Karuk tribal members Ron Reed and Sonny Mitchell catching the first fall chinook salmon of the on the Klamath river in late August 2024. Photo by Liz Kimbrough for Mongabay. US proposes rescinding Roadless Rule protections for national forests https://news.mongabay.com/short article/us proposes rescinding roadless rule protections for national forests/ Olden, J. D., Postel, S. L., Dombeck, M. P., Kesting, H., Freeman, P., & Comte, L. 2026 . Assessing the value of the US Roadless Rule for people and nature. PLOS Water , 5 7 , e0000538. Mildrexler, D. J., Berner, L. T., Law, B. E., & Booth, M. S. 2026 . Roadless rule rescission threatens highest integrity forest ecosystems in the United States. Biological Conservation , 321 , 111950. Balch, J. K., Bradley, B. A., Abatzoglou, J. T., Nagy, R. C., Fusco, E. J., & Mahood, A. L. 2017 . Human started wildfires expand the fire niche across the United States. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences , 114 11 , 2946 2951. Aplet, G. H., Hartger, P., & Dietz, M. S. 2026 . Three decade record of contiguous US national forest wildfires indicates increased density of ignitions near roads. Fire Ecology , 22 1 , 8. Yu, J., Zhao, Q., Yu, Z., Liu, Y., & Ding, S. 2024 . A review of the sediment production and transport processes of forest road erosion. Forests, 15 3 , 454. Liz Kimbrough is a staff writer for Mongabay and holds a Ph.D. in ecology and evolutionary biology from Tulane University, where she studied the microbiomes of trees. 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