Trump administration moves to open untouched national forests to logging

KGOU By Brian Mann, NPR

August 18, 2026 The Trump administration moved on Tuesday to roll back an environmental rule that currently blocks road construction, and by extension most logging and mining activity, on tens of millions of acres of public forest land.

The so-called "roadless rule" was introduced by the Clinton administration and went into effect in 2001. It has been a flashpoint in the U.S. fight over economic development and wild land conservation, especially in Western states, for a quarter of a century.

"Our forests can't afford another decade of inaction," U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said in a statement. "It's time to turn the page on the failed roadless rule and return our forests to health and productivity."

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