The Trump administration is moving to repeal a federal conservation rule that has long protected undeveloped swaths of national forests from roads and logging – including more than 2,800 acres at the heart of Kentucky’s Red River Gorge.
The Roadless Area Conservation Rule, in place since 2001, was designed to protect pristine forestland from development. It prohibits road construction, logging and other activities in roadless areas, which encompass about 45 million acres of the 193-million-acre national forest system, mostly in the West.
In Kentucky, the U.S. Forest Service roadless inventory includes only one piece of forest: the 2,800 acre Wolfpen tract in the Cumberland District of Daniel Boone National Forest, just north of Chimney Top Rock, a popular scenic overlook. The land borders the Red River and intersects with the 340-mile Sheltowee Trace National Recreation Trail.
The proposed repeal would remove the prohibitions of the roadless rule in the Wolfpen area, according to a map published by the Forest Service.
It’s unclear if or how the Forest Service unit overseeing Daniel Boone National Forest would change its forest management approach in the region in the absence of the roadless rule. An agency spokesperson for Daniel Boone National Forest did not immediately provide comment to The Courier Journal on the local implications of the proposed repeal.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture, which oversees the Forest Service, has criticized the “failed roadless rule” for impeding forest management and amplifying wildfire risk. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said the repeal would “restore authority to local forest managers who know the land best” and help “return our forests to health and productivity.”
The proposed repeal has faced backlash from conservation advocates, who say the change would not only enable fragmentation of protected forestland, but also invite into those forests the most common source of wildfire ignition: humans.
Most wildfires, including those that have ravaged large stretches of the West, are ignited by way of unattended campfires, discarded cigarettes and other human-caused incidents. Researchers who recently analyzed decades of wildfires in national forests found the highest density of wildfire ignition was within 50 meters of roads.
In an open letter, a group of scientists told federal agencies that “building more roads in currently unroaded areas is likely to result in more human-caused wildfire starts on national forest lands,” and “that current roadless rule limitations are not hindering hazardous fuel reduction projects.”
Kentucky Heartwood, an advocacy group that has previously sued the U.S. Forest Service over logging plans in Daniel Boone National Forest, opposed the repeal.
“The Roadless Rule has been one of the few durable backstops protecting the wildest, least-disturbed parts of the Daniel Boone National Forest from the kind of piecemeal logging and road-building we’ve already had to fight project by project,” Executive Director Johanna Delgado-Acevedo said in a statement, citing controversial cases in the Redbird District of Daniel Boone and in the Jellico area along the Tennessee border.
Red River Gorge, a popular canyon system among hikers and climbers for its rugged terrain, draws more than 1 million visits annually. It is an important tourism center for surrounding Powell, Lee, Wolfe and Menifee counties, drawing millions of dollars to local businesses.
“Roadless backcountry,” Delgado-Acevedo said, “is a large part of what makes that landscape worth visiting.”
The Forest Service maintains more than 265,000 miles of roads across national forests and grasslands – a network five times longer than the entire interstate highway system, meant to provide access for recreation and land management. But road construction in forests can contribute to habitat disruption and sediment pollution that degrades downstream water quality.
A stretch of the Red River that borders the Wolfpen roadless area is part of the national Wild and Scenic Rivers system, designed “to preserve certain rivers with outstanding natural, cultural, and recreational values in a free-flowing condition for the enjoyment of present and future generations.”
National debate over the roadless rule has mostly centered on western forests – where wildland fires have been devastating, and where the U.S. Forest Service oversees tens of millions of roadless acres. The 2,800 acres of inventoried roadless area in Red River Gorge represent a small fraction of Kentucky’s 800,000 acres of total national forest system land, and a tiny fraction of the land at stake under the repeal.
But with the loss of the roadless rule, advocates fear small pockets of pristine forest could be exposed to individual fights over development, timber harvesting and the delicate balance of forest management.
“Repealing it nationally removes a baseline protection and shifts these decisions to a case-by-case basis where every roadless acre in Kentucky becomes a fight of its own,” said Delgado-Acevedo, who called the repeal “one of the most consequential forest policy fights in a generation.”
The administration’s repeal is likely to face legal challenges from conservation groups. Public comments on the proposed repeal are accepted for a 30-day period, through Sept. 21.
Last year, congressional Democrats introduced a bill to cement the protections of the Roadless Rule in federal law, though the legislation has not advanced. Louisville’s U.S. Rep. Morgan McGarvey is among dozens of co-sponsors.
The Roadless Rule repeal also comes in a period of upheaval for the Forest Service. Last year, amid President Donald Trump’s purge of federal agencies, the agency lost nearly 6,000 employees to mass terminations and resignations, an inspector general report found. Staff in Daniel Boone National Forest were among the losses, union representatives previously told The Courier Journal.
The agency is also undergoing the largest reorganization in more than 100 years, including the relocation of its headquarters from Washington, D.C., to Salt Lake City, Utah. It plans to consolidate offices and operations across the country, and dozens of research sites are being evaluated for closure, according to the agency, including the Forest Health Research and Education Center housed at the University of Kentucky.
Connor Giffin is an environmental reporter for The Courier Journal. Reach him directly at cgiffin@courier-journal.com or on X @byconnorgiffin.
This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: In heart of Red River Gorge, Trump action could allow roads, logging
Reporting by Connor Giffin, Louisville Courier Journal / Louisville Courier Journal
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By Connor Giffin, Louisville Courier Journal | USA TODAY Network
