Defend Oregon’s Wild Forests – Oppose H.R. 7695
Stand up for Oregon’s 2 million acres of Roadless Areas under new threat from Congress.
The Trump administration has announced plans to eliminate the Roadless Rule, a longstanding safeguard that protects nearly 2 million acres of Oregon’s forests and 58 million acres nationwide from destructive logging and development. These include beloved places like the Metolius River, Lost Lake, the Oregon Dunes, Mount Hebo, Hardesty Mountain, Tumalo Mountain, and the Upper Hood River Valley.
We expect the administration’s draft plan to be released any day now, followed by a public comment period that will be our opportunity to weigh in on this disastrous proposal for wild public lands.
Oregon’s roadless public lands will need you to speak up once again when that comment period opens, but we also have another critical opportunity right now to defend these places. At the same time the Trump administration is rolling back the Roadless rule, Congress is also working on roadless forest legislation with one bill–the Roadless Area Conservation Act–aiming to permanently protect these threatened roadless forests, and another–H.R. 7695, which would permanently eliminate the Roadless Rule and protections for roadless areas.
H.R. 7695 is having a House subcommittee hearing this week, meaning this awful bill could soon be moved to a committee vote and a full floor vote. Two of Oregon’s congressional members–Representatives Cliff Bentz and Maxine Dexter–sit on this subcommittee that will hear the bill on Thursday. Let’s make sure they know how important protected roadless wildlands are to Oregonians.
We also have an opportunity to pass long-lasting protections for these special places with the Roadless Area Conservation Act (RACA). The entire Oregon delegation, except Representatives Val Hoyle and Cliff Bentz, are supporting this vital legislation.
Take action now to support these vital landscapes!
