Published : 31 Aug 2026, 12:21 AM
Updated : 08 Sep 2026, 09:37 AM
The Trump administration has scrapped a two-decade-old rule protecting America's old-growth forests, putting more than 400 endangered species at risk and opening vast stretches of protected land to roads, drilling, and logging.
The rollback of the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule, introduced under Bill Clinton, clears the way for industrial activity across more than 45 million acres of national forests, The Guardian cited a new report by the Center for Biological Diversity.
The administration justified the move by saying the old restrictions had blocked forest treatments that improve woodland health and reduce wildfire risk.
Conservationists say the opposite is true.
"Our national forests are home to some of America's most iconic animals, from grizzlies to hellbenders," Randi Spivak, public lands policy director at the Centre for Biological Diversity, was quoted as saying.
"Bulldozing more roads through them will mean dirtier water, fragmented wildlife habitat and greater wildfire risk."
The report warns that about 3 million hectares of endangered-species habitat and nearly 2,900km of protected rivers and streams are now vulnerable.
At-risk species include grizzly bears and gray wolves in the Rocky Mountains, wild salmon in Alaska and the Pacific north-west, Mexican spotted owls and jaguars in the south-west, and rare butterflies and wildflowers across the country.
The threat extends well beyond wildlife. National forests supply drinking water to millions of Americans -- including more than 70 percent of metro Atlanta's water, 45 percent of Phoenix's, and three-quarters of Flagstaff's.
Alaska's Tongass national forest, the country's most productive wild salmon habitat, supports a fishing economy worth roughly $1 billion a year and one in 10 jobs in the region.
The forest rule reversal is the latest in a string of environmental decisions since Trump returned to office in January, the report added.
His administration has also allowed off-road vehicles in national parks, scrapped drilling-free buffer zones near a UNESCO world heritage site in New Mexico, and ordered tree-cutting across almost 113.31 million hectares of public land.
