A Trump administration plan to revoke conservation measures for millions of acres of national forest could open parts of western Maine to logging.
U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins has proposed eliminating the roadless rule, a 25-year old regulation that generally prohibits timber harvesting and road building in areas without roads.
The rule covers about 59 million acres of national forest, mostly in western states. Rollins said rescinding the protection will help guard against wildfires and boost timber production.
"This move opens a new era of consistency and sustainability for our nation’s forests," Rollins said in a press release last month.
"It is abundantly clear that properly managing our forests preserves them from devastating fires and allows future generations of Americans to enjoy and reap the benefits of this great land,” Rollins added.
Conservation groups in Maine and nationwide staunchly oppose the measure.
The rule is wildly popular with environmental advocates, fishers and the public for its benefits to outdoor recreation, water quality and ecosystem protection, said Zack Porter, executive director of Standing Trees, a Vermont based group that advocates for protecting public forests.
Revoking the rule could affect more than 230,000 acres of wild forest in the White Mountain National Forest, including 6,000 acres in Maine, according to the service's inventory.
And that covers iconic areas of the White Mountains such as Crawford Notch, Mount Chocorua and parts of Evans Notch in Maine, Porter added.
"When you take a scenic drive or a weekend hike you are enjoying a landscape that has been protected for 25 years by the roadless rule," Porter said.
The protected area in Maine is a tiny sliver, but is important since there is so little public land in the state, he added. The amount of timber logged on federal land in New England is miniscule and eliminating protections would not substantially increase harvesting, according to Porter.
"What few roadless acres we have are precious wild resources in a very heavily managed landscape," Porter said.
Other groups including the Sierra Club have decried plans to rescind the rule.
Matt Cannon, the club's Maine director for conservation and energy, said the administration's justification for ending protections is undercut by research indicating that roads actually increase the risk of wildfires.
"I've heard of no one who wants to actually get rid of wilderness areas in support of more industrial logging," Cannon said.
But the proposal has support from the National Association of Homebuilders, which said the roadless rule is overly restrictive and prohibits land to be properly managed.
Opening federal forests to logging in an environmentally responsible matter "is an important step forward to increase domestic timber production to meet the needs of American home owners and home buyers," the association said in a press release.
Changing the rule requires environmental analysis, consultation with tribes and coordination with states, as well as public input.
