Public Overwhelmingly Supports Retaining the Roadless Rule, Keeping Public Lands Public
For Immediate Release:
September 2nd, 2026
Contacts:
Bethany Cotton, Conservation Director, bethany@cascwild.org, (541) 393-8178
Corvallis, Ore — Today, community members and forest advocates gathered in protest of the U.S. Forest Service Chief Tom Schultz’s appearance at Oregon State University’s “Science, Stewardship, and Sustainable Forests Resource and Development Summit.” Schultz is a Trump appointee and former timber industry executive. His visit comes in the midst of the agency’s plan to rescind the Roadless Area Conservation Rule, commonly called the Roadless Rule. Removing the Roadless Rule’s protections threatens nearly 45 million acres of undeveloped public backcountry forestland managed by the agency, approximately one third of the entire national forest system. In Oregon alone, eliminating the Roadless Rule would threaten roughly 2 million acres.
“Across the nation, the public overwhelmingly supports protecting Roadless Areas,” said Madeline Cowen, field and organizing manager for Cascadia Wildlands. “It’s no surprise that a timber lobbyist like Chief Schultz is leading the effort to repeal the Roadless Rule to pad the pockets of industry executives and advance the Trump administration’s attacks on public lands.”
The Roadless Rule is a highly popular policy celebrated as one of America’s most successful conservation measures. Prior to its enactment, more than 600 public hearings were held nationwide, and 1.6 million Americans weighed in supporting the then-proposed protections of these forestlands. The Trump administration has failed to hold a single public hearing and provided minimal public engagement opportunities as it seeks to repeal the rule.
“The Roadless Rule has existed for my entire life, and my generation has enjoyed the recreational opportunities and climate benefits of these protected areas.” Said Jack Dodson, rising senior at the University of Oregon and co-director of UO’s Climate Justice League. “Future generations deserve to grow up with the Roadless Rule too, especially as the climate crisis worsens and these benefits become ever more important.”
Despite research showing that the vast majority of wildfires are human caused, and that expanding backcountry road systems will only increase access for human-caused fires to ignite, Chief Schultz has led the agency’s efforts to repeal the rule. Shultz directed the agency to utilize aggressive “fire suppression”, ignoring the scientific consensus that fire plays a critical ecological role in Western ecosystems.
“Tom Schultz is treating America’s national forests like corporate logging plantations,” said Ryan Beam, national public lands advocate at the Center for Biological Diversity. “These forests protect trees and streams so we can have clean water, healthy wildlife and places to enjoy nature’s beauty. We need our country’s forest chief to get busy expanding national forests by millions of acres, not handing them over to corporations to cut down and cash in.”
Amidst a slew of attacks on public lands, and severe reductions in federal land management agency staffing, Schultz is carrying out Trump’s Executive Order 14225 to increase federal timber production by 25 percent over the next four years. Increasing the cut on federally managed public lands will devastate forests essential for wildlife habitat, drinking water sources, clean air, recreation and climate mitigation. The Forest Service is accepting public comments on its proposed rule and draft environmental impact statement (DEIS) through September 21st. The agency’s own analysis of public comments on its proposed rescission reveals the public overwhelmingly supports retaining the rule. The DEIS also admits that the proposal will increase fire risk, amongst other negative impacts on public lands.
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Find high-resolution photos of the rally for press use here. Photo credits: Cascadia Wildlands. Please contact Cascadia Wildlands for video footage.
