WASHINGTON, D.C. (August 27, 2025)—In response to the Trump administration’s opening of an official rulemaking process to revoke Roadless Rule protections for more than 44 million acres of national forest land, Amy Moas, Ph.D., Greenpeace USA Senior Climate Campaigner, said: “We have seen this sad show before. During his first term, in January 2020, Trump attempted to do the same thing. Then the U.S. Forest Service received a quarter of a million public comments in response to the draft proposal — 96% of which voiced support for safeguarding the Roadless Rule. This move, made clearly in opposition to public opinion, highlights how this administration has little regard for what people in this nation both need and want.
“This popular conservation measure established in 2001 protects some of the last and largest remaining tracts of our nation’s forests, as well as the wildlife and carbon it holds, from new and catastrophic clearcut logging. Thriving forests, such as the Tongass in Alaska, are crucial for the health of our planet, local economies, and countless wildlife species.”
In October 2020, the Trump administration removed roadless protections, in opposition to the public comments received by the US Forest Service. The move put millions of acres of previously protected old growth forest, in places like Alaska’s Tongass, in jeopardy. The Biden administration reinstated the measure in full in January 2023.
Greenpeace USA is part of a global network of independent campaigning organizations that use peaceful protest and creative communication to expose global environmental problems and promote solutions that are essential to a green and peaceful future. Greenpeace USA is committed to transforming the country’s unjust social, environmental, and economic systems from the ground up to address the climate crisis, advance racial justice, and build an economy that puts people first. Learn more at www.greenpeace.org/usa.
