Roadless Area Conservation Act of 2025
The Roadless Area Conservation Act of 2025 would enshrine long-term protection for inventoried roadless areas within the National Forest System. It directs that the Secretary of Agriculture, acting through the Chief of the Forest Service, not allow road construction, road reconstruction, or logging in inventoried roadless areas in ways that are prohibited by the Roadless Rule (the 2001 Roadless Rule and its Idaho and Colorado modifications). In short, the bill codifies existing protections into law, ensuring that inventoried roadless areas remain largely free from new road-building and logging activity consistent with the Roadless Rule, while continuing to allow multiple uses of national forest lands. The bill also emphasizes that these protections operate within the Forest Service’s broader mission of multiple-use management and do not add new restrictions on lands outside inventoried roadless areas. The bill’s findings underscore broad public benefits of roadless areas—clean water, outdoor recreation, wildlife habitat, sacred sites for Indigenous communities, and economic activity tied to recreation and healthy ecosystems—while noting related considerations such as wildfire risk, existing road maintenance backlogs, and the potential for hydropower development. The act’s operative language focuses on protection of inventoried roadless areas in line with the Roadless Rule and the Forest Service’s authority.
Key Points
- 1Codifies protection: The Secretary must not allow road construction, road reconstruction, or logging in inventoried roadless areas when those activities are prohibited by the Roadless Rule, effectively enshrining Roadless Rule protections into statute.
- 2Definitions and scope: The bill defines “inventoried roadless area,” “Roadless Rule,” and “Secretary” (Secretary of Agriculture via the Forest Service), anchoring the scope of protection to the Roadless Rule and its applicable modifications.
- 3Purpose within multiple-use management: The act affirms that protections are designed to fit within the Forest Service’s multiple-use mandate, balancing conservation with various permitted uses, and clarifying that no new restrictions are imposed beyond the Roadless Rule.
- 4Respect for existing land-use dynamics: The bill states that protections do not impose new limitations on inventoried roadless areas or on access to land outside those areas, preserving access and uses outside inventoried roadless areas.
- 5Legislative framing and findings: While the operative provision focuses on prohibitions, the findings underscore benefits of roadless areas (water protection, recreation, biodiversity, sacred sites, and habitat) and note related issues such as wildfire risk patterns, road maintenance backlogs, and considerations around hydropower.