USDA Rescinds Roadless Rule, Opening Logging on Federal Lands

U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins announced yesterday during a meeting at the Western Governors’ Association in New Mexico that the U.S. is rescinding the 2001 Roadless Rule, which prohibits road building on more than 58 million acres of federal forest lands.

NAHB supports this action to repeal the Roadless Rule because it is overly restrictive, prohibits land to be properly managed at the state and local level, and needlessly blocks federal timber harvesting in a healthy and sustainable manner.

With the nation importing more than 25% of the softwood lumber it needs to build new homes, opening up federal forest lands in an environmentally responsible manner is an important step forward to increase domestic timber production to meet the needs of American home owners and home buyers.