WASHINGTON – The Trump administration’s push to allow more road construction in national forests has alarmed preservationists in Arizona, who warn the change could lead to logging or more uranium mining near the Grand Canyon.
On Aug. 18, the Department of Agriculture announced the plan to rescind the 2001 Roadless Rule, which prohibits road construction and timber harvesting on federal forest land.
The proposal would affect nearly 45 million acres in 37 states, including nearly a third of national forest in 10 Western states. In Arizona, the rule has protected nearly 1.2 million acres from development, including parts of the Kaibab National Forest north and south of the Grand Canyon.
The USDA couched the change as a way to reduce wildfire and otherwise protect the long-term health of public lands, and to protect wildlife. Environmental groups dispute that.
“For too long, outdated restrictions have kept tens of millions of forested acres off-limits to the very treatments that improve forest health and reduce wildfire risk to our communities,” Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said in the announcement, citing overgrowth and insect and disease outbreaks as reasons for rescinding the Roadless Rule.
Days before leaving office in January 2001, President Bill Clinton, a Democrat, issued the Roadless Rule. President George W. Bush, a Republican, tried to quash the rule but lost in court.
Timber companies and others opposed the rule from the outset.
Although the Roadless Rule only directly covers national forests, nullifying it would also impact nearby national parks like the Grand Canyon, said Stephanie Adams, the National Parks Conservation Association’s conservation programs director.
“National parks don’t exist in isolation,” she said. “The health of the park really depends on ensuring the health of the broader landscape – making sure that there’s adequate wildlife habitat and the wildlife can actually get there, making sure that the rivers and the air quality is strong both inside and beyond park borders.”
The proposed repeal is subject to a public comment period that runs through Sept. 21.
Opponents worry the change could lead to more uranium mining near the Grand Canyon.
One such mine is already in operation. A company called Energy Fuels Resources operates the Pinyon Plain Mine 6 miles southeast of Tusayan in the Kaibab National Forest. The 17-acre site is about 5 miles outside the national park.
“The Grand Canyon area is already facing increasing threats from increased pressures on uranium mining,” Adams said. “Those roadless areas around the Grand Canyon provide a little bit of extra protection” for wildlife and hikers.
In a statement to Cronkite News, the USDA said Arizonans and Grand Canyon visitors should know that all core wildlife protections will remain.
“Removing the roadless rule does not authorize any ground activities. Future land management decisions would be based on natural resource conditions and needs and informed by states, tribes, and communities through public comment,” the USDA said.
Under the USDA plan, the department said, local forest managers would have more flexibility to thin trees to reduce the risk of fire and to make other decisions, free from a national “one-size-fits-all restriction.”
The Kaibab National Forest’s diverse tree portfolio includes ponderosa pine and Douglas fir – both in demand for construction lumber.
A 2025 Wilderness Society study of fires on Forest Service land from 1992 to 2024 found that most occurred within 50 meters of a road.
“Human-caused fires start on roads or within close proximity to roads,” said Matthew Nelson, executive director of the Arizona Trail Association. “If we actually look at statistics and believe numbers, more roads means more fires.”
USDA officials argue that the roadless rule has kept fire-prone areas inaccessible to firefighters and to crews that could otherwise remove flammable vegetation.
“Active forest management is not an option. It’s essential,” Forest Service Chief Tom Schultz said in the Aug. 18 USDA statement. “More than 40% of inventoried roadless areas, primarily in the West, have high or very high wildfire hazard potential.”
Adams and other environmental advocates are also concerned about the effect on wildlife around the Grand Canyon.
Road construction fragments habitats, which may lead to them leaving those areas altogether, she said. Specifically, she said, vehicle traffic, construction and mining would hinder elk migration.
“If you have populations that are already struggling from higher heat and drier conditions, then facing increased pressure from development as they’re migrating over the long run, that can really impact the long-term health of those populations,” Adams said.
Elaine Leslie, a former wildlife biologist at Grand Canyon National Park, said the Trump administration’s broad push to remove wilderness protections means the concerns about mining and logging are completely rational.
In March, the Forest Service transferred ownership of Oak Flat, a site in the Tonto National Forest that holds an estimated $150 billion worth of copper, to Resolution Copper, after an appeals court rejected efforts by the San Carlos Apache Tribe to block the project.
In April, President Donald Trump signed a law that removed protections from about 225,000 acres of public land in Minnesota eyed by mining interests.
In July, the Interior and Commerce departments reinterpreted the term “harm” as used in the Endangered Species Act, significantly easing regulatory obstacles to development.
In late August, news surfaced that Interior and the National Park Service are considering a land swap that would give land from Yosemite National Park to a developer.
“For years, federal agencies abused the ESA to obstruct lawful land use and burden American families and businesses,” Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said in the announcement.
Leslie said deer and elk are most at risk from road construction near the Grand Canyon, and if their populations dwindle, that would affect animals up the food chain such as mountain lions.
Logging, mining, roads and the air and noise pollution they would bring would also interrupt breeding, she said, especially if construction takes place during mating season.
“You also have genetic diversity and you want to keep that genetic health in wildlife species, so that they flourish,” Leslie said.
Sandy Bahr, director of the Sierra Club’s Grand Canyon Chapter, said the proposal to eliminate the Roadless Rule puts developers’ interests ahead of the public’s.
“Grand Canyon National Park is so important, but we can’t treat it like it’s isolated and that things that happen outside the park don’t affect the park,” she said. “Lands around the park are vulnerable right now under this administration because of how little they value them.”