Trump administration repeals Clinton-era rule in effort to reduce wildfires

SANTA FE, N.M. – U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins announced plans on Monday to reverse a Clinton-era policy in an effort to reduce wildfires caused by a lack of forest management.

The policy change was announced at the annual Western Governors Association meeting in New Mexico where Utah Gov. Spencer Cox was joined by six other state executives who had mixed reactions to the news.

Western states will be disproportionately impacted by the repeal of the so-called “roadless rule” established in 2001 by President Bill Clinton to block road building, mining and logging on 58 million acres of undeveloped national forest lands.

How much Utah land falls under ‘roadless rule’?

Around 30% of the National Forest System falls under the rule, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. But this number jumps to 50% in Utah, 45% in Idaho and 40% in Montana, Rollins said.

“This misguided rule prohibits the Forest Service from thinning and cutting trees to prevent wildfires and when fires start, the rule limits our firefighters access to quickly put them out,” Rollins said.

Since implementation of the rule began, the area burned by wildfires each year has more than doubled from around 3 million acres to over 6 million acres, Rollins said.

Her agency is currently monitoring 19 large fires across western states, Rollins said, including the Forsyth Fire in Pine Valley, Utah, which Cox visited on Sunday after it destroyed 13 homes.

Rollins attributed this increase to the “roadless rule” while Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, a Democrat, said the increase in wildfires has been caused by warming weather.

“Climate change is the biggest problem in fueling these damaging fires,” Grisham said to some applause. “We can do climate mitigation and force health resilience and recovery.”

Cox: ‘Really big news’ for Utah

Cox called the announcement “really big news” for the state of Utah, which, unlike Colorado and Idaho, is not exempt from the restriction.

For years, Utah has tried to do more to manage its national forests, including entering into a “shared stewardship” agreement with the Trump administration, which was renewed under President Joe Biden, to treat thousands of acres of national forest lands.

“Utah has been really such a great model for this,” Rollins said.

The work of periodically clearing underbrush and thinning trees was controversial where Utah tried it, Cox said, but doing so has resulted in saving “an entire subdivision” of 50 homes in at least one instance of a wildfire in Utah.

Managing forests actually results in cleaner watersheds and more wildlife, according to Cox, who called for additional federal funding for shared stewardship projects to clean out national forest lands.

“A good forest is like a garden,” Cox said. “You actually have to tend it and take care of it, and if we do this the right way we can prevent fires and improve production.”