Repeal of U.S. Roadless Rule could threaten drinking water for 25 million people

The USDA has proposed fully rescinding the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule, opening a 30-day comment period on a change that could allow roads and logging across 45 million acres of national forest. Researchers say roughly 25 million Americans get drinking water from watersheds fed by these roadless areas, with states like Colorado, New Mexico and Montana especially exposed.

Forests filter runoff and trap sediment; roads and logging undo that, and a 2024 study found forest roads can contribute up to 90 percent of sediment loads in some streams. The Forest Service already carries a $10.8 billion maintenance backlog on existing roads, which run eight times the mileage of the entire interstate highway system.

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins framed the rule as cutting ‘outdated restrictions’ that block wildfire-reducing treatments, but most human-caused wildfires ignite within about 50 meters of a road, and the proposal itself concedes new roads could raise ignition risk in some areas. A federally recognized tribe and multiple legal scholars have warned the change invites lawsuits and threatens water supplies Albuquerque and Santa Fe depend on.

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