#USPol #TheGremlinZoo #USDA #Conservation
From Santa Barbara Independent on FB: The federal law that prohibits paving and logging National Forest land is officially on the chopping block, and conservationists warn that the cleaver could strike lands on the Central Coast.
The 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule protects 59 million acres of National Forest land from logging and roadbuilding — including 635,000 remote acres in Los Padres National Forest. It protects the backcountry, where old-growth forests provide shelter for wildlife and opportunities for outdoor recreation, while keeping the air and watersheds clean.
But on Tuesday, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) filed a proposed rule to rescind the Roadless Rule in its entirety.
USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins’s intent to revoke the Roadless Rule has been on conservationists’ radars for more than a year. But now, the threat is materializing.
Recreationists, hunters, anglers, environmentalists, and anyone who enjoys clean water from headwaters originating in national forests should be especially alarmed, said Mary Lunetta, a conservation strategist for the Sierra Club.
Read more: https://www.independent.com/2026/08/21/feds-moving-at-full-throttle-to-reverse-roadless-rule-protecting-national-forests/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=Environment&utm_content=Roadless-Rule&utm_gen=utmdc
📸: Bryant Baker