The U.S. Department of Agriculture has released a Notice of Intent (NOI) to rescind the Roadless Area Conservation Rule nationwide, including protections for the Tongass National Forest. The decision opens a compressed public comment period ending September 19.
If finalized, the rollback would add nearly 190,000 acres of Tongass forestland to the inventory considered “suitable” for timber production. The Tongass—covering 16.7 million acres of Southeast Alaska—is the largest intact temperate rainforest in the world and stores roughly 20% of the carbon contained in all U.S. national forests, according to the U.S. Forest Service.
Supporters of the Roadless Rule stress that the forest underpins Alaska’s $2 billion commercial fishing sector and its growing tourism industry. Logging, by contrast, makes up less than 1% of regional jobs, according to Alaska Department of Labor data. Studies have shown that road building and clear-cutting accelerate habitat loss, fragment salmon streams, and reduce the forest’s carbon sink capacity, increasing long-term climate risks.
“Across Southeast Alaska, we see the irreparable damage from decades of unsustainable clear-cut logging,” said Maggie Rabb, Executive Director of the Southeast Alaska Conservation Council. “Rescission of the Roadless Rule provides economic benefit to one exceedingly small sector of Alaska’s economy at the expense of thriving industries like tourism and fishing.”
For Alaska Native Tribes, the NOI raises concerns about cultural survival and sovereignty.
“Rescinding the Roadless Rule will devastate our community just as we are beginning to heal from clear-cut logging of the past,” said Joel Jackson, President of the Organized Village of Kake. “We are the people of the forest and salmon people — our lives and our voices should count.”
Gloria Burns, President of the Ketchikan Indian Community, added: “Without our lungs — the Tongass — we cannot breathe life into our future generations.”
These statements echo the overwhelming public sentiment. During a similar rollback effort under the Trump administration, 96% of the 1.6 million public comments supported keeping Roadless protections in place.
First enacted in 2001, the Roadless Rule safeguards 58 million acres of U.S. forestland from new roads and industrial logging. People have long viewed the protections as a cornerstone of U.S. forest policy for the Tongass, which provides habitat for five species of Pacific salmon, Sitka black-tailed deer, and endangered Queen Charlotte goshawks.
Environmental law groups, including Earthjustice and the Center for Biological Diversity, argue that rescinding the rule undermines U.S. climate commitments while shifting costs to taxpayers. Past logging subsidies in the Tongass have run into the hundreds of millions of dollars, with timber sales often generating less revenue than the cost of building access roads.
“The Roadless Rule prohibits bulldozing over American treasures like the Tongass,” said Nicole Whittington-Evans, Senior Director of Alaska and Northwest Programs at Defenders of Wildlife. “Rescinding this rule will come at great ecological and taxpayer expense.”
