Catherine M. Corkery, catherine.corkery@sierraclub.org
CONCORD, NH – Today, the USDA Forest Service announced the release of a Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) on the proposed repeal of the Roadless Area Conservation Rule, initiating a 30 day public comment period. During this time, the public will be able to urge the Forest Service to maintain the rule that protects undeveloped roadless areas across the country, including well-known locations in New Hampshire, such as Mount Chocorua in the Sandwich Range Mountains, Lincoln Woods Trail off the Kancamagus Highway, the Appalachian Trail on Mount Moosilauke, and Liberty Springs Trail from Franconia Notch State Park.
The comment period will last for only 30 days, a strikingly short amount of time compared to the hundreds of public hearings across the country over 18 months when the rule was originally proposed in 2001.
If the Roadless Area Conservation Rule is repealed, over 230,000 acres of roadless areas in the White Mountain National Forest of New Hampshire and Maine will lose protections and could be opened to new road building, mining, drilling, and logging. In Vermont, there are 25,000 Roadless acres in the Green Mountain National Forest.
In response, Catherine M. Corkery, Sierra Club New Hampshire Chapter Director, issued the following statement:
“For over 20 years, the Roadless Rule has provided stability for families to explore public lands in the White Mountain National Forest in Maine and New Hampshire. Annually, millions of people come from across the region and around the world just to be in these wild woods. We also depend on the clean air and clean water filtered down from the tallest peaks. The local and migrating wildlife find refuge in all seasons. The forest is the heart of New Hampshire.
All the while, the local economy has flourished with the Roadless Rule in place. Despite the Trump Administration’s suggestions that this action will 'unleash prosperity,' repealing the Roadless Rule will do anything but that, and New Hampshire’s environment and communities will be worse off."
ADDITIONAL BACKGROUND:
A comment period was organized to receive public input on the Trump administration’s proposal to revoke the Roadless Rule, a policy enacted in 2001 that protects nearly 60 million acres of national forests across 36 states and Puerto Rico. In June 2025, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins announced the administration’s plan to repeal the rule, which would open these wild landscapes to roads and development. A brief public comment period was held in fall of 2025 and received more than 600,000 comments – 99% of which supported retaining the Roadless Rule.
The two-decade-old rule protects against new roadbuilding and the extractive industries that roads can lead to, such as logging and mining, in backcountry forestlands that have been undisturbed by major development. During the process that resulted in the original 2001 rule, the U.S. Forest Service held more than 600 public meetings over the course of 18 months to help inform the policy.
Roadless forests offer people a wide range of recreational activities, provide wildlife with much-needed habitat and range connectivity, and protect the headwaters of rivers which are vital for maintaining clean drinking water nationwide. Rescinding the Roadless Rule nationally would increase logging and other destructive, extractive development in public forests that currently function as intact ecosystems to benefit wildlife and people alike.
About the Sierra Club
The Sierra Club is America’s largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization, with millions of members and supporters. In addition to protecting every person's right to get outdoors and access the healing power of nature, the Sierra Club works to promote clean energy, safeguard the health of our communities, protect wildlife, and preserve our remaining wild places through grassroots activism, public education, lobbying, and legal action. For more information, visit www.sierraclub.org.