Mt Thielson Wilderness by Selena Blick
By Selena Blick
Blick is an avid hiker, birder, longtime Sierra Club Oregon volunteer, and lifelong Oregonian.
On the same day I returned home to Portland after hiking 126 days and 1,907 miles on the Pacific Crest National Scenic Trail, the Trump administration published its plan to repeal the Roadless Rule and end protections for many of the wild forests, pristine lakes, and vibrant Oregon ecosystems I had just passed through.
The Trump administration is telling us that canceling Roadless Area protections will help combat wildfire. We are all concerned about fires, so it’s an easy sell. But what they’re not telling you is that the science says that roads and fire are a matched set. In fact, 90% of all wildfires are started within a half-mile of a road, according to the Pacific Biodiversity Institute; and 88% are human caused, according to the National Interagency Fire Center. Meanwhile at the U.S. Forest Service, thousands of long-tenured employees have been fired, research laboratories and field stations that are actually keeping people and communities safe are being shuttered, and the administration has proposed slashing the agency’s operating budget by 60% or more for the past two years.
The administration’s real goal of repealing The 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule is to open our public lands to the logging, mining, and drilling that roads enable. You don’t have to take my word for it. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins last year called the Roadless Rule “absurd” as she declared a “timber emergency,” saying the rule prohibited the Forest Service from getting more “logs on trucks.”
The Roadless Rule protects more than 2 million acres across Oregon for hiking, hunting, fishing, camping, mountain biking, bird watching, stargazing, and so much more. These Roadless Areas include portions of the John Day, Kalmiopsis, and Mt. Jefferson Wildlands, as well as areas around Mt. Hood, Tumalo Mountain, Sparks Lake, Waldo Lake, and the Oregon Dunes. They make up more than 10% of the PCT and help keep our water and air clean while protecting habitat for endangered fish and wildlife. They can be found in every part of the state and you have likely visited many.
Sky Lakes Wilderness by Selena Blick
Oregonians know that fire is serious, but we should keep our communities safe by protecting homes, not creating profit opportunities for the timber industry. Home hardening to prevent embers from catching, create defensible space, and prepare for emergencies are far more effective strategies for keeping wildfire away from our communities. We can’t log our way out of wildfire, but if we allow the Trump administration to succeed in attacking our public lands, we will do immense irreversible damage to the natural landscapes that make Oregon Oregon.
If you agree Oregon’s wild places deserve continued protection, you can submit a comment in defense of the Roadless Rule to the U.S. Forest Service until September 21, 2026.
Click to add your voice today!
As a kid who grew up backpacking in Oregon, hiking the PCT had long been a dream of mine. I wanted to be immersed in Oregon’s various landscapes as they flowed from one into the other on the trail. I am so grateful that I got to have that experience this year, and I want others to have the same opportunity for decades to come. We must defend the Roadless Rule today to ensure that these lands stay majestic and wild for future generations.