This is an opinion piece. We value the diverse opinions of our readers and we welcome robust, wide-ranging thoughts and ideas on subjects relevant to Mendocino County. The following opinion is not representative of The Mendocino Voice, its publisher, editor or staff. Opinion pieces can be sent to info@mendovoice.com.
The Trump administration is making headlines by openly attacking our democracy, ordering federal troops into US cities and using masked agents to perpetrate illegal mass arrests and deportations targeting immigrants. But in rural communities, another front line in the authoritarian offensive against our country is being waged out of the spotlight against our public lands, particularly wild areas already protected from mining, drilling and clearcut logging.
In June, a scheme to sell off millions of acres of public land was removed from Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” by overwhelming opposition that included a small handful of Republican senators. Later that month, the Trump Administration announced plans to eliminate the 2001 Roadless Rule, which has preserved forests, habitat and clean drinking water from industrialization for 24 years. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins formally announced the assault on what’s left of our roadless national forests in the Federal Register on Aug. 29, opening a very short public comment period that ends Sept. 19.
In total, the 2025 Roadless Rule rescission would apply to nearly 45 million acres of inventoried roadless areas nationwide. Here in Mendocino County, that includes thousands of acres of designated roadless areas in the Mendocino National Forest. These places and dozens of others throughout the north coast will be targeted by the administration’s plan to repeal the 2001 Roadless Rule.
Roadless areas supply 50% of the state’s drinking water. They shelter over 200 imperiled species like the Pacific Fisher and Sierra Nevada red fox. They are the last contiguous non-industrialized landscapes where Traditional Indigenous management practices can be utilized to enhance and restore native biodiversity.
And despite Trump’s rhetoric, rolling back the Roadless Rule will not protect communities from wildfire. In fact, wildfires like this year’s Bridge Fire in Alderpoint or Medicine Fire north of Covelo are four times as likely to start in areas with road access—from unattended campfires, equipment malfunctions, discarded cigarettes, and even arson. More roads lead to more human-caused ignitions, and more ignitions lead to more fire.
Without the Roadless Rule, the administration can build miles more roads and target unspoiled landscapes across national forests in our state. They already plan to cut down millions more trees than at any time since the Forest Service’s logging peak around 1990, and to expand that goal by 25 percent each year. If accomplished, California residents will suffer reverberating losses of our sources of clean water, wildlife habitat, hunting areas, fishing streams and recreation space.
There are already 370,000 miles of roads in our national forests — that is more than double the miles in the federal highway system. Our ecosystems are already experiencing shifts due to climate change. The Roadless Area Conservation Act (RACA), now pending in Congress, would provide lasting protection for inventoried roadless areas on our public lands, making the US Forest Service’s Roadless Rule into federal law. Our Congressman Jared Huffman is a RACA cosponsor.
This important bill would protect over 58 million acres of national forest wilderness from logging and development. At a time when the Trump administration is doing everything they can to sell off and sell out public lands, we need our members of Congress to do what they can to step in.
Public comments to oppose the Roadless Rule rescission are needed now. You can comment online at www.Regulations.gov — enter the docket number: FS-2025-0001. Or you can use the Sierra Club’s comment tool. All comments must be received by Sept 19. It’s up to us to protect the few remaining pockets of remote, unbroken forest where nature can flourish away from vehicles and industrial exploitation.
Alicia Bales is the director of the Sierra Club Redwood Chapter.
This area has been logged several times and many fires have gone through there. There needs to be management to be sustainable like the motto of the Forest Service and intent of creating the Forest Service. Plus the brush is taking over which creates hot fires
Since 2001:
✔️Over 8 million acres of roadless forests have burned.
✔️Nearly half of all roadless acres are now rated high or very high wildfire risk.
✔️Fire crews have struggled to respond quickly because of limited road access.
Rescinding the rule does not mean opening the door to unregulated logging. It means restoring the ability of professional land managers, with full environmental safeguards, to responsibly consider access for restoration, fuels reduction, recreation, and emergency response.
These lands will continue to be protected under laws like NEPA, the Endangered Species Act, the Clean Water Act, and local forest plans. What changes is that communities and managers will finally have the flexibility to take action where it’s needed most.
I grow up with logging in my family here in mendocino county for 41 years and when logging went away this community went down anlong with the jobs went then the stabilityto live. If it was not for weed for the time it was here this place would have been another old logging town long ago. We need more jobs and jobs are not coming to a town with a bunch off trees and no where to build. We need logging again