Rescinding Roadless Rule is not a magic bullet

Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins last week laid out her case for why the federal Roadless Rule that protects some 58 million acres of Forest Service land should be rescinded.

The Clinton-era law, she argued, has trapped the Forest Service "in a cycle of neglect and devastation" causing rampant wildfires and stymieing valuable timber harvests.  

"For almost 25 years, road construction has been halted," the secretary wrote in an op-ed published in last week's Daily Inter Lake. "The rule made it nearly impossible to establish a reliable timber supply, cutting off access to family-supporting jobs and revenue streams for remote communities." 

It's a compelling argument that hits home for many Northwest Montana residents, where a declining logging industry still supports thousands of workers who supply the mills still buzzing in Columbia Falls, Evergreen and Thompson Falls. Eliminate the Roadless Rule's bureaucratic red tape, and the industry can flourish once again, Rollins says. 

Unfortunately, it's not that simple. Killing the Roadless Rule won't be the magic bullet she and other politicians make it out to be. 

In this corner of the state, the inventoried roadless areas include a long swath along the crest of the rugged Swan Mountains, some high terrain of the remote Whitefish Range and along the mountains adjacent to the desolate Great Bear and Bob Marshall wilderness areas.  

In short, they've remained roadless for a reason. 

“It’s not automatic that by lifting the Roadless Rule, all those lands go to meeting timber goals," Mary Erickson, a retired Montana forest supervisor, told Mountain Journal. "They’re steep and rugged and don’t necessarily have high-value timber." 

There are better places to find productive forests. In fact, there are nearly a million acres on the Flathead Forest within the existing federal road network that are primed for timber management activities that will feed local mills. 

Let's start there -- particularly within wildfire urban interface areas where forests need to be cleaned up to protect lives and property. 

There are also steep costs associated with building and maintaining new roads.  

The Forest Service already has a $7 billion backlog of deferred maintenance for roads and bridges. It would be irresponsible to expand an already neglected network before maintenance needs are brought under control. And that's not to mention the biological and legal challenges that would surface with forging into habitats for protected species. 

While pledging to repeal the federal Roadless Rule makes for a convenient sound bite for Rollins and the Trump administration, the on-the-ground realities are far more complex than the rhetoric suggests.