The Trump administration has initiated a process to rescind the "Roadless Rule," an administrative regulation that has prohibited new road construction and logging across millions of acres of national forest lands for decades. The U.S. Department of Agriculture stated the objective is to improve access for firefighters and remove regulatory barriers.
The proposed change would impact Alaska's Tongass National Forest, where approximately 9.2 million acres are currently designated as roadless. Critics of the move, including members of the Southeast Alaska Conservation Council, stated that the forest is essential for traditional Tlingit medicines, foods, and arts, while others expressed concern regarding the impact on ecotourism and carbon storage.
Proponents of the rescission, including the Alaska Forest Association, argued that the move could make more timber supply available to the industry. However, the U.S. Forest Service has estimated that fewer than 200,000 acres of roadless land in the Tongass would be suitable for logging. Industry advocates also noted that high transportation costs to the Lower 48 states and the potential for future policy reversals make large-scale timber production in the region difficult.
For the timber industry and local communities, the impact remains uncertain. The Alaska Forest Association noted that while the rule change could increase supply, the volume may not be significant enough to address current industry challenges. Furthermore, because timber must often be transported by boat to be milled outside the state, the high cost of transportation may limit the commercial viability of new logging operations. Retired Forest Service economist Susan Alexander noted that past attempts to lift the ban resulted in the government spending money to prepare timber sales that never occurred before policy was reversed by subsequent administrations.
The concrete changes to the landscape and the local economy would likely not be immediate. According to the Forest Service, no timber sales occurred in the Tongass the last time it was exempted from the rule. The agency is expected to finalize the rescission next year.
What happens next: The U.S. Forest Service is expected to finalize the rescission of the Roadless Rule in 2027. Following that, the agency may begin preparing timber sales in areas previously designated as roadless, though the economic feasibility of these sales remains a point of debate among industry experts and former agency economists.