The Trump Administration and Republican lawmakers are poised to rescind a decades-long rule aimed at protecting wild lands.

Nevada Public Radio | By Yvette Fernandez

Published June 17, 2026 at 12:51 PM MDT

Grasses, brush and some small trees are seen on Oct. 23, 2022, growing among the deadfall left behind after the 2007 Angora Fire tore through forest near Lake Tahoe, Calif. The Caldor Fire burned near the same area in 2021. Scientists say forest is disappearing as increasingly intense fires alter landscapes around the planet, threatening wildlife, jeopardizing efforts to capture climate-warming carbon and harming water supplies. (AP Photo/Brian Melley)

Environmental groups are questioning the rationale behind an effort in Congress to rescind a 2001 rule that protects millions of acres of public lands. Wildfire prevention is at the heart of a debate over the roadless rule.

The Roadless Area Conservation Rule was enacted during the Clinton administration after nearly two years of public hearings and more than one and a half million comments. It restricts new construction, reconstruction, and commercial timber harvesting.

Several Senate Republicans are pushing an amendment to the Wildfire Prevention Act of 2025 that would do away with the roadless rule, arguing that it impedes wildfire mitigation efforts.

But environmental groups point to other legislation meant to provide solutions and funding for communities to protect themselves.

Ellen Montgomery with the group Environment America thinks removing the roadless rule is less about fire protection and more about profit.

"They really should be two totally separate issues. We really shouldn't be trying to figure out how to make money from our public lands at the same time as we're trying to figure out how to protect communities," Montgomery said.

Lawmakers have introduced many alternatives like the "Fix Our Forest Act," meant to improve forest management but has stalled in the Senate. Environment America doesn't think this will adequately address wildfire mitigation. Montgomery favors alternatives like the Community Protection and Wildfire Resilience Act in the House, introduced by California Rep. Jared Hufman, which would provide community grants for creating defensible spaces and home mitigation.

"I think they should be talking about how to protect communities from fire, not talking about rolling back policies that have been in place for more than 25 years," Montgomery said.

While the federal rule covers millions of acres in more than half the states across the country, Idaho and Colorado have opted for state-specific rules to protect wild lands with specific protections that consider local conditions and priorities. Sen. Lisa Merkowski of Alaska supports this option despite the executive order which exempts the Tongas National Forest.

A separate initiative by the Trump administration could also do away with the roadless rule. The president has issued two executive orders. One aims to streamline what the administration has called "overcomplicated, burdensome barriers" that hamper American business and innovation. The other order directs the U.S. Forest Service to exempt the Tongass National Forest from the 2001 Roadless Rule.

The Forest Service is working on an environmental impact statement studying the effects of rescinding the rule.

This story was produced by the Mountain West News Bureau, a collaboration between Wyoming Public Media, Nevada Public Radio, Boise State Public Radio in Idaho, KUNR in Nevada, KUNC in Northern Colorado, KANW in New Mexico, Colorado Public Radio, KJZZ in Arizona and NPR, with additional support from affiliate newsrooms across the region. Funding for the Mountain West News Bureau is provided in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and Eric and Wendy Schmidt.