Public comments must be submitted by Friday on a potential change to allow more road building on undeveloped U.S. national forest land after the Trump administration announced plans in August to rescind the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule, better known as the “Roadless Rule.”
The proposed move would roll back “roadless rule” protections for the least-developed portions of U.S. national forests, including 85,000 acres in the Cherokee National Forest in Tennessee and 63,000 acres in the Chattahoochee National Forest in Georgia. The change would open those areas up to road building and “harmful development,” according to Southern Environmental Law Center spokesperson Eric Hilt.
Roadless protections, he said, help protect popular recreation destinations and important wildlife habitats, and they are especially important in the South, where many national forests have already been fragmented by road building.
Sam Evans, who leads the law center’s forest and parks program, said the effort to rescind the rule shows the Trump administration “is completely out of touch with what Americans value in our public lands.”
(READ MORE: Conservation groups challenge clear-cutting of Tennessee forests)