10/08/2026
99.1% opposed repealing the Roadless Rule. The administration has a clear message from the public.
A new analysis from the Center for Western Priorities found that 367,043 of the 370,238 public comments posted on the Forest Service’s proposal opposed repealing the 2001 Roadless Rule. Just 0.5% supported repeal.
The rule protects roadless areas across more than 44 million acres of national forests in most states, limiting most new road construction and commercial logging. The Trump administration says repealing it would reduce wildfire risk and give local managers more flexibility, but the Forest Service’s own environmental analysis has raised questions about the rationale for removing these protections.
And this isn’t the first time the public has overwhelmingly opposed a rollback of public-land protections. Similar analyses have found more than 99% opposition to repealing the Roadless Rule in 2025 and 99% opposition to the Forest Service’s recent Travel Management Rule rewrite.
The comment period is closed but the fight isn’t over.
The Forest Service now has to decide what to do with a record of overwhelming public opposition. We’ll be watching what happens next.