While Californians might be able to picture our national forests—from alpine lakes to giant sequoias to meandering trails amidst manzanita or scrub brush that offer refuge from urban life, many of these places are protected by something few people have ever heard of: the Roadless Area Conservation Rule.
Adopted in 2001, the “Roadless Rule” protects nearly 60 million acres of national forest land across the country from most road construction, timber harvesting, and development. California has more national forest acreage than any state other than Alaska and the Roadless Rule safeguards around 4 million acres of wild, roadless landscapes—from the Inyo to the Klamath, from the Los Padres to the Sierra.
These lands are open for the public—campers, hikers, hunters, anglers, and other outdoor enthusiasts (including mountain bikers) are welcome. But they are largely OFF-LIMITS to bulldozers, chainsaws and other activities that threaten their ability to protect water quality, wildlife habitat, cultural resources and give future generations a chance to experience truly natural places.
Yet, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins recently told a gathering of Western Governors in New Mexico that the administration plans to rescind the Roadless Rule for at least the majority of the entire country, endangering millions and millions of acres of wild and pristine lands. It is unclear whether the individual states who have roadless rules will be part of the process such as with the Idaho Roadless Rule.
Photo: West/East Girard IRA – Mcloud River by Steve Evans
Why The Roadless Rule Matters for California
- Water security: Headwaters of rivers and creeks in roadless areas provide clean drinking water to millions of Californians. In fact, National forests in California make up 20 percent of the state yet supply 50 percent of the runoff for drinking water.
- Wildlife: California’s national forests are some of the most biodiverse and visited in the country. Their roadless areas provide habitat for more than 200 threatened or endangered species of wildlife, including imperiled species like the Pacific fisher, California spotted owl, and Sierra Nevada red fox.
- Wildfire safety: Either unintentionally or not, people cause about 95% of California’s wildfires, and more roads means more cars in national forests, which can lead to more wildfire.
- Cultural resources: California’s Tribal Nations rely on roadless areas for traditional practices.
- Recreation: Roadless areas protected by the Roadless Rule offer a wide variety of primitive outdoor recreation pursuits, including hiking, backpacking, equestrian use, mountain biking, angling, hunting, and whitewater boating to millions of Californians.
Do Roads Help Fight Wildfires in California’s National Forests or Make Fires Worse?
People have recently asked CalWild if we need to create more roads to fight the regular occurance of massive fires across the state. The answer is NO. While Roadless and/or Wilderness areas cover 40% of our national forests, only 20% of major fires occur in Roadless or Wilderness areas (where no roads occur). Furthermore, only 19.9% of California’s Roadless areas are considered “high risk” for severe fires. In fact, fires in Roadless areas burned 25% fewer acres than areas with roads.
In addition, the Roadless Rule already allows the forest service to fight fires as needed in roadless areas and to manipulate vegetation to mitigate fire risk and severity. Vegetation management projects are somewhat common in these areas, especially near existing roads that exist outside roadless areas, where fire ignitions are more likely
What’s at Stake
Undoing the Roadless Rule could permanently damage landscapes that take centuries to recover, and only 20% of California’s forests remain roadless, making any additional degradation significant. Roads fragment wildlife corridors, introduce invasive species, and increase fire risk. Logging in these areas often targets mature and old-growth trees—some of our best natural tools for fighting climate change.
California’s roadless areas include beloved Northern California national forests like:
- Mill Creek IRA in Lassen National Forest
- West/East Girard IRAs in Shasta-Trinity National Forest
- Board Camp IRA in Six Rivers National Forest
- Pyramid IRA surrounding the popular Desolation Wilderness near Lake Tahoe in the Eldorado National Forest/Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit.
- North Fork American River IRA on the Tahoe National Forest.
As well as roadless areas in Southern California national forests like:
- The biodiverse Sespe-Frazier, which includes endangered California steelhead trout, and Madulce-Buckhorn IRAs in the Los Padres National Forest
- Fish Canyon and Sheep Mountain IRAs in the Angeles National Forest
- Cucamonga IRA and Pyramid Peak/San Jacinto IRA in the San Bernardino National Forest
- Trabuco-Hot Springs and Egale Pake IRAs in the Cleveland National Forest
Without the Roadless Rule, many of these wildlands could be opened to logging and road construction under the guise of “forest management,” undermining public access to these places or destroying their recreational value.
What You Can Do
If elected leaders try to roll back the Roadless rule, agencies should be required to follow specific procedures for adopting, amending, or repealing substantive rules, including notice-and-comment rulemaking. So, the Roadless Rule can be influenced by the public’s will to defend it. As debates over forest use and fire management continue, Californians must raise their voices to ensure that conservation—and California’s forest future—wins.
In Summary
The Roadless Rule is a quiet hero in California’s conservation story. It’s not flashy. It doesn’t create new parks or monuments. But it does help set the stage for bigger protections—since Roadless Areas have many times later become “durably protected” areas like designated wilderness and national monuments. And for now, it also holds the line—protecting our forests from being carved up and commodified. And in a time of climate crisis, megafires, and biodiversity loss, holding the line matters more than ever.
