The U.S. Department of Agriculture and U.S. Forest Service just concluded a three-week comment period on the Trump Administration’s plan to rescind the Roadless Rule–a decades-long policy that protects over 58 million acres of our nation’s wildest and most intact public lands from road construction, commercial logging, and development.
With an incredibly short three-week public comment period, the administration was no doubt expecting, and hoping, to receive little response from the public.
But, boyyyyy, were they wrong about that.
The agency received over 600,000 public comments, and an initial analysis by the Center for Western Priorities found that opposition to the administration’s plan to repeal the Roadless Rule was near unanimous; a remarkable 99.2% of comments supported keeping Roadless protections in place.
It doesn’t get much clearer than that. Americans love their public lands and want our last undeveloped forests to stay ROADLESS.
Oregonians speak up for wild forests
In Oregon, thousands of people made their voices heard during the public comment period by submitting comments, showing up to events, and sharing their endearment for Oregon’s wild places.
Oregon Wild and partners hosted comment-writing events in Bend and Eugene, where over 100 people showed up to take action for our state’s roadless forests. Dozens of others joined us on guided hikes through Roadless Areas like Tumalo Mountain in Central Oregon, Larch Mountain in the Columbia Gorge, and Gordon Lakes in the Willamette National Forest.
Thank you for showing up, and thank you for clearly and forcefully rejecting this attack on our wild public lands.
What’s next?
The comment period may have ended, but this is just the start of the process, and there will be other opportunities for the public to engage. The Forest Service must now analyze all of these comments, and we expect the agency’s draft plan to be released in spring 2026, kicking off another comment period. We can expect a final rule and decision by early 2027.
What can you do now?
Until then, we are focused on passing legislative protections for roadless areas through the Roadless Area Conservation Act (RACA). This bill would codify the Roadless Rule into law, creating lasting protections for these places that can’t be undone by this–or a future–administration.
We are fortunate to have congressional champions for public lands in Oregon like Rep. Andrea Salinas, who introduced the House version of RACA. Reps. Suzanne Bonamici, Maxine Dexter, and Janelle Bynum are co-sponsors of the House bill, and both Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley are co-sponsors on the Senate side.
Rep. Cliff Bentz and Rep. Val Hoyle are the only two Oregon representatives who have not yet supported the bill.
While we don’t expect public lands protections to pass the current Congress, any support we can secure now makes it more likely this will be on the short list of things a new Congress can do after the 2026 election.
Reach out to your members of Congress today and urge them to advance this critical legislation to keep our undeveloped forests wild.
