Several Montana Conservation organizations are opposed to rescinding the 2001 Roadless Rule, which curbs road building and other development in about 45 million of acres of federal lands across the West.

That has set off alarm bells for groups like the Glacier-Two Medicine Alliance, which has spent years on land protections on the Continental Divide near Marias Pass outside of Glacier National Park.

“In northern Montana, some of the national forest lands that could be opened to road building and logging in the future if the Rule is rescinded include the Badger-Two Medicine – an area sacred to the Blackfeet Nation, most of the Flathead National Forest adjacent to US-2 between Marias Pass and West Glacier, most of the Swan Range bordering the Flathead Valley including the Jewel Basin Hiking Area, and much of the central and northern Whitefish Range,” the Alliance said in a release.

The Roadless Rule limits new road construction, road reconstruction, and commercial timber harvest on about 6 million acres in Montana. It does provide some exceptions to these prohibitions, including for ecological restoration, public safety, or to address the risk of severe wildfires, conservation groups note.

Wildfires were front and center when Forest Service Chief Tom Schultz spoke to members of the Republican caucus in Whitefish last month. When he announced the Forest Service would look to rescind the Clinton-era rule, it drew a round of applause from Republicans, who view it as onerous and hampering wildfire mitigation efforts and other land management.

Schultz claimed about 24 million acres of those roadless lands are adjacent to what’s known as the wildland urban interface, a zone where private homes abut the national forest.

Tim McEntire, Northwest Region representative of the Montana Logging Association said that rescinding the rule would allow land managers more flexibility in managing local woods. In addition, many roadless areas already have roads, they just haven’t been used in some years.

“It won’t result in unrestrained logging,” he said, noting the Forest Service would still have use National Environmental Policy Review as well as Endangered Species Act consultation for projects, as well as other standards.

“Just because it’s rescinded doesn’t mean there will be logging in a lot of areas,” McEntire said.

He also said there are many areas with dead and dying timber that spread disease to nearby healthy forests.

Some places that are roadless don’t have much, if any timber base.

Places like the Badger Two Medicine are roadless, and remote. Oil and gas exploration has been banned in the region. The scars of old roads in the Badger Two Medicine, however, are evident.

As far as timber is concerned, the Skyland Fire burned through the Badger-Two Medicine, roasting most of the timber back in 2007.

The area now is largely a sea of grass, softwoods like aspen and cottonwoods and small lodgepole pines.

On a larger scale, the Montana Wildlife Federation claims that roadless areas protect more than 43,000 miles of trail, over 20,000 mountain biking routes, 11,000 climbing routes, and more than 1,000 whitewater paddling run, nationwide.

Large sections of the Continental Divide Trail, the Pacific Crest Trail, and the Appalachian Trail cross through them (including the aforementioned Badger Two Medicine).

“The Roadless Rule provides vital protections against harmful road building and logging for some of the wildest, most beautiful and ecologically or culturally sensitive national forest lands in northwest Montana. These roadless areas may not be as glitzy or well known as Glacier National Park or the Bob Marshall Wilderness, but they are every bit as important to maintaining healthy ecosystems and intact watersheds, to the conservation and recovery of fish and wildlife species like elk, grizzly bears or bull trout, or as wild places for people to hunt, fish or explore,” said Glacier Two Medicine Alliance Executive Director Peter Metcalf. “Rescinding the Rule is the exact opposite of responsible, common sense forest management.”

The formal comment period on the recission effort is now underway. The direct link to comment is at: www.regulations.gov/document/FS-2025-0001-0001

The deadline for comment is Sept. 19.