{"id":391230,"date":"2025-07-28T10:41:45","date_gmt":"2025-07-28T08:41:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=391230"},"modified":"2025-07-28T10:41:54","modified_gmt":"2025-07-28T08:41:54","slug":"cutting-the-threat-of-giant-wildfires-by-axing-harmful-clinton-era-forest-policies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=391230","title":{"rendered":"Cutting the threat of giant wildfires by axing harmful Clinton-era forest policies"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Close-up
Flame of fire in a burning house.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From CFACT<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Bonner Cohen, Ph. D.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dramatically reversing federal management of the nation\u2019s natural resources, an over two-decades-old rule that has left millions of acres of U.S. Forest Service lands at high risk of catastrophic wildfires is being put to the torch by the Trump administration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Developed by the Clinton administration in the late 1990s, and going into effect in 2001, the Roadless Area Conservation Rule was said to protect over 58 million acres of Forest Service lands by banning logging and the construction of roads in what amounts to 30 percent of the National Forest System.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But separating these vast lands from the human touch has severely undermined the health of both the forests and the people living in nearby communities. The prohibition on logging has allowed the forests to become overgrown, where not even diseased or dead trees can be removed or brush to be cleared by machinery, resulting in the emergence of giant tinderboxes ready to explode at the first lightning strike or casually thrown-away cigarette. Firefighters attempting to extinguish blazes that break out in roadless areas are hindered from doing their job due to the\u2026lack of roads.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cInstead of protecting forests,\u201d Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins wrote<\/a> of the Roadless Rule in The Desert News<\/em>, \u201cit has trapped them in a cycle of neglect and devastation. To date, we\u2019ve seen more than 8 million acres of Roadless Areas burn. To put that into perspective, the average acreage lost to wildfire each year has more than doubled since 2001.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With a new wildfire season rapidly upon us, the Agriculture Department, which oversees the Forest Service, paints a dire picture of what the Roadless Rule has wrought. \u201dOf the 58.5 million acres of inventoried roadless areas covered under the 2001 Roadless Rule, 28 million acres are in areas of high or very high risk of wildfire,\u201d the department notes in a press release<\/a>. \u201cRescinding this rule will allow this land to be managed at the local forest level, with more flexibility to take swift action to reduce wildfire risk and help protect surrounding communities and infrastructure.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to the loss of wildlife, vegetation, people, and property caught up in rapidly spreading infernos, wildfire smoke has serious health effects on people not directly in the path of a blaze. Exposure to wildfire smoke, which can travel hundreds of miles under prevailing winds, is closely tied to the health effects emanating from fine particles. \u201cFine particles,\u201d the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) explains in its evaluation<\/a> of human exposure to wildfire smoke, \u201care respiratory irritants, and exposures to high concentrations can cause persistent coughing, phlegm, wheezing, and difficulty breathing. Even in healthy people, exposure to fine particles can potentially lead to transient reductions in lung function, and pulmonary inflammation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An environmental policy that is environmentally destructive and leads to more people being exposed to the hazards of wildfire smoke is something the public does not have to tolerate. \u201cThe forests we see today are not the same as the forests of 2001,\u201d Forest Service Chief Tom Schultz points out<\/a>. \u201cThey are dangerously overstocked and increasingly threatened by drought, insect-borne disease, and wildfire.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By allowing timber to be harvested in areas that were off-limits to logging under the Roadless Rule, both the thinning of dangerously overgrown forests and the revitalization of the nation\u2019s timber industry can be accomplished. Especially hard hit by the Clinton-era Roadless Rule were Washington, Oregon, and Northern California. Lumber production in the Pacific Northwest\u2019s national forests has plummeted<\/a> since the rule went into effect, with the void being filled by heavily subsidized Canadian lumber. As inflation cools, mortgage rates are expected to fall in the coming months, triggering a demand for new home construction. The millions of acres of Forest Service land that will soon be open to logging will help meet that demand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The conspicuous failure of the Roadless Rule to deliver on its promise of healthier forests has not kept eco-warriors from yearning for a world that never was. \u201cStripping our national forests of roadless rule protections will put close to 60 million acres of wildlands on the chopping block,\u201d said<\/a> Alex Craven, the Sierra Club\u2019s forest campaign manager.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is really on the chopping block \u2013 at long last \u2013 is a scheme that has wreaked havoc with the very forests it was supposed to protect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This article originally appeared at Real Clear Energy<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dramatically reversing federal management of the nation\u2019s natural resources, an over two-decades-old rule that has left millions of acres of U.S. Forest Service lands at high risk of catastrophic wildfires is being put to the torch by the Trump administration.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":391232,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_crdt_document":"","advanced_seo_description":"Explore how repealing the Clinton-era Roadless Rule aims to reduce wildfire risks and improve forest health, enhancing community safety.","jetpack_seo_html_title":"Ending the Roadless Rule: A Solution to Wildfire Risks","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[691836833,691836835,691836834,691823480,691832017,691820084,691818913],"class_list":{"0":"post-391230","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"hentry","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"tag-clinton-administration","9":"tag-forest-service-chief-tom-schultz","10":"tag-national-forest-system","11":"tag-u-s-environmental-protection-agency-epa","12":"tag-u-s-forest-service","13":"tag-wildfire-smoke","14":"tag-wildfires","16":"fallback-thumbnail"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/0Burning-house.jpg?fit=2300%2C1824&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-1DMa","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":267419,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=267419","url_meta":{"origin":391230,"position":0},"title":"It\u2019s not the climate, it\u2019s the fuel","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"14\/07\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"\u201cWildfires have been getting less frequent in Canada over the past 30 years,\u201d McKitrick writes. \u201cThe annual number of fires grew from 1959 to 1990, peaking in 1989 at just over 12,000 that year, and has been trending down since. From 2017 to 2021 (the most recent interval available), there\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Canada\"","block_context":{"text":"Canada","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=canada"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/0rawImage.jpg?fit=1200%2C776&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/0rawImage.jpg?fit=1200%2C776&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/0rawImage.jpg?fit=1200%2C776&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/0rawImage.jpg?fit=1200%2C776&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/0rawImage.jpg?fit=1200%2C776&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":208723,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=208723","url_meta":{"origin":391230,"position":1},"title":"Thanks, Fox News, For Telling the Truth About Forest (Mis)Management","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"15\/07\/2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Fox News\u00a0recently published an article discussing how forest management in California has contributed to the severity of wildfires there.\u00a0Fox\u00a0accurately presented the facts about the need to reduce fuel loads as an important part of preventing wildfires. This truth is all too often villainized by environmental activists. The article, \u201cEnvironmentalists are\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/0fire-g01258d8f6_1920.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/0fire-g01258d8f6_1920.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/0fire-g01258d8f6_1920.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/0fire-g01258d8f6_1920.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/0fire-g01258d8f6_1920.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":230858,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=230858","url_meta":{"origin":391230,"position":2},"title":"Thanks, Wall Street Journal, for Reporting on the Quiet Western Wildfire Season","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"24\/11\/2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Wildfires are common enough to have a season named after them. All it takes is the right combination of conditions.","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/0forest-fire-pixabay-1.jpg?fit=1200%2C793&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/0forest-fire-pixabay-1.jpg?fit=1200%2C793&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/0forest-fire-pixabay-1.jpg?fit=1200%2C793&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/0forest-fire-pixabay-1.jpg?fit=1200%2C793&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/0forest-fire-pixabay-1.jpg?fit=1200%2C793&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":219255,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=219255","url_meta":{"origin":391230,"position":3},"title":"Wildfires are the \u201cOld Normal\u201d for the Pacific Northwest","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"17\/09\/2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Wildfires and their smoke are a natural part of the Northwest ecosystem.","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/image-816.png?fit=940%2C600&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/image-816.png?fit=940%2C600&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/image-816.png?fit=940%2C600&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/image-816.png?fit=940%2C600&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":261875,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=261875","url_meta":{"origin":391230,"position":4},"title":"Anthony on Fox News \u2013 AOC is wrong for \u2018spieling\u2019 Canadian wildfire hysteria","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"13\/06\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"It has happened before \u201cclimate change\u201d was even known","rel":"","context":"In \"Anthony Watts\"","block_context":{"text":"Anthony Watts","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=anthony-watts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/00Screenshot-2023-06-13-101232.png?fit=1200%2C644&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/00Screenshot-2023-06-13-101232.png?fit=1200%2C644&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/00Screenshot-2023-06-13-101232.png?fit=1200%2C644&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/00Screenshot-2023-06-13-101232.png?fit=1200%2C644&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/00Screenshot-2023-06-13-101232.png?fit=1200%2C644&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":261853,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=261853","url_meta":{"origin":391230,"position":5},"title":"You are being conned: Data, studies & UN IPCC all reveal Canadian fires not due to \u2018climate change\u2019 \u2013 \u2018There has been a significant & continuing decline in the number of fires\u2019","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"12\/06\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"The media and climate activists are again weaponizing wildfires and linking them to climate change. Better forest management, cracking down on arson, and improved fire impression practices are what is needed, not the Green New Deal.","rel":"","context":"In \"Canada\"","block_context":{"text":"Canada","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=canada"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/03000.jpeg?fit=1200%2C798&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/03000.jpeg?fit=1200%2C798&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/03000.jpeg?fit=1200%2C798&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/03000.jpeg?fit=1200%2C798&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/03000.jpeg?fit=1200%2C798&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391230","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/121246920"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=391230"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391230\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":391235,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391230\/revisions\/391235"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/391232"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=391230"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=391230"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=391230"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}