HANOVER — Conservation groups are pushing against a federal effort to roll back a rule that protects 235,000 acres of land in New Hampshire and 25,000 acres in Vermont in the White and Green Mountain National Forests.
The 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule is a National Forest Service policy that bans road construction, reconstruction and timber harvesting in 60 million acres of inventoried “roadless areas” around the country with a goal to “provide lasting protection” to National Forest lands, according to the rule.
The rule protects about one-fifth of National Forest lands in New England, including a quarter of the White Mountain National Forest, Zack Porter, executive director of the Montpelier-based advocacy organization Standing Trees, said. It is also the policy that protects much of the land surrounding portions of the Appalachian Trail in southern states as it meanders north toward the Upper Valley.
“If you’ve gone hiking or driving, even, through one of the many beautiful notches in New Hampshire, you are benefiting from the roadless rule,” Porter said. “… I don’t think any New Englander… wants to see those become just laced with logging roads and just cut for timber. That’s not what these places are for but that’s what we’re facing down.”
Last June, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins announced a plan to eliminate the rule to allow for “fire prevention and responsible timber protection” in protected lands, according to a news release.
“This outdated administrative rule contradicts the will of Congress and goes against the mandate of the USDA Forest Service to sustain the health, diversity, and productivity of the nation’s forests and grasslands,” the release said.
The roll back is part of a broader Trump administration effort to eliminate regulations that are identified as inhibiting economic growth, in this case timber harvesting.
USDA kicked off a formal process to eliminate the rule last August with a two-week public comment period and said at that time that a proposed rule was expected in March. The Department plans to issue a draft environmental impact statement “this spring” followed by a 30-day public comment period, a Forest Service spokesperson confirmed Thursday. The final rule is expected to be released in late 2026.
Standing Trees along with local chapters of the Sierra Club and National Parks Conservation Association have hosted informational events around New Hampshire about the rule change, including in Hanover last Tuesday.
The rulemaking process has been opaque and not involved enough public input, Porter said in an interview, so conservation groups are holding their own meetings to spread the word.
“Hanover was a natural place because it’s kind of this key link in the chain between the Green Mountain National Forest and the White Mountain National Forest sitting along the Appalachian Trail corridor,” Porter said in an interview.
New Hampshire’s Congressional Delegation authored a letter in December criticizing the Forest Service’s short public comment period and called on the agency to “provide greater opportunity for those who care about our national forests to have meaningful involvement, including by holding public meetings in New Hampshire.”
At Tuesday’s meeting of about 30 people, conservation groups gave a presentation and attendees recorded comments, which the organizations plan to submit to the USDA when a comment period opens.
In addition to disrupting recreation, Porter argues that rescinding the roadless rule will lead to habitat fragmentation for wildlife, threaten large blocks of forest that are “rapidly regaining the characteristics of older forests” and spread invasive species.
Contrary to the argument from the federal government, Porter argued that rescinding the rule could lead to more wildfires by bringing more people into backwoods areas.
“There are two certainties with roads: fire and invasive species spread,” Porter said.
The Hanover Conservancy has also weighed in on the rule change. In September, then-Executive Director Adair Mulligan authored a letter noting that “this wise rule was put in place for good reasons that are well-founded in science and follow economic good sense.”
Mulligan also argued that paying for new roads that will need management “makes no fiscal sense,” the risk of wildfire from new roads is a threat in New England because of ongoing drought and the U.S. already has limited capacity to process timber products, so “there is absolutely no point in opening up roadless areas to harvesting.”
Current Executive Director Barry Matthews said last week that the rule is directly relevant to the Conservancy’s work because it threatens the “connectivity” of conserved land.
“Although we work close to home here in Hanover, natural communities don’t stop at our town lines,” Matthews said in an email. “The AT corridor serves as a kind of superhighway for native species, and connects our local community to National Forest lands up in the Whites. While we’re working to fill in the puzzle pieces here and build a more connected and resilient landscape, rescinding the Roadless Rule will create opportunities for fragmentation of currently intact lands elsewhere.”
The Rev. Jim Antal of Norwich attended Tuesday’s meeting in Hanover because of a deep personal connection to national forest land.
As a teenager, Antal said he hiked the John Muir Trail in California and “that just changed my life” and inspired a “deep connection to nature” that he incorporated into his career as a pastor in the United Church of Christ and passed on to his family.
In an interview, Antal said he was struck by a map that was presented at the meeting of roadless areas on the East Coast.
“When you see the map and you just see how built out the environment is and what little of our land remains pure nature, the value of it is huge,” Antal said.
The New Hampshire House of Representatives adopted a bipartisan-sponsored resolution in early May, HR44, opposing the rollback. The resolution outlines the value of New Hampshire’s public lands, including their contribution to a nearly $4 billion annual outdoor recreation industry.
But, not everyone supports the roadless rule.
The New Hampshire Timberland Owners Association, an industry group of landowners and forest industry professionals such as loggers, opposed the Roadless Rule in 2001 and continues to do so because it “can make management impractical,” according to a position statement on HR 44.
“The NHTOA has consistently promoted multiple-use management of public lands, which includes active forest management, and the NHTOA has always supported the White Mountain National Forest local planning process,” Communications Director Bill Chaisson wrote in the statement. “For these reasons, the NHTOA continues to oppose the Clinton-era Executive Order that designated ‘roadless areas’ on the White Mountain National Forest.”
