The draft environmental impact statement that was due in March still hasn’t appeared. When it does, it will open the last public comment period before a final decision expected later this year on roughly 45 million acres of national forest—including the headwaters of some of the country’s best trout and salmon rivers.
Conservation groups are staging their own public forums this week on the proposed rescission of the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule—because the federal government hasn’t held a single one. Rep. Andrea Salinas, a Democrat representing Oregon’s 6th Congressional District and ranking member of the House Agriculture Committee’s forestry subcommittee, and the Oregon chapter of the Sierra Club organized meetings this week in the Pacific Northwest. In Southeast Alaska, the Southeast Alaska Conservation Council launched a series of forums in Juneau on April 1 under the banner “Stand Tall for the Tongass.” Similar events have been staged in Missoula and other communities across the country.
The federal government’s approach stands in stark contrast to the original rulemaking. When the Forest Service finalized the Roadless Rule in 2001, the process involved hundreds of public meetings across the country and drew more than 1.6 million public comments. The Trump administration’s scoping phase, which ran August 29 through September 19, 2025, lasted 21 days. USDA held zero public meetings.
Asked about the absence of public forums, a USDA spokesperson told the Oregon Capital Chronicle in a statement: “The decision on whether to host public meetings comes at a later phase of the process.”
Where the Process Stands
USDA announced the intent to rescind the Roadless Rule on June 23, 2025, when Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins cited wildfire risk and timber production goals. The agency published a notice of intent in the Federal Register on August 29, 2025, stating that a draft environmental impact statement and proposed rule were expected by March 2026, with a final rule and record of decision to follow in late 2026.
The draft EIS has not appeared. As of March 12, a USDA spokesperson told Mountain Journal the document would arrive “in the coming months” but declined to set a date. As of April 2, the Sierra Club noted no public meetings had been announced for the comment period that will accompany the draft. The Forest Service website still lists the draft EIS as expected “in early 2026.”
When the draft EIS does arrive, it will trigger a final public comment period. That window—and the subsequent final rule—will determine the fate of roughly 45 million acres of inventoried roadless areas currently protected under the rule. Idaho and Colorado have state-specific roadless rules that are exempt from the rescission.
What Anglers Stand to Lose
The Roadless Rule protects the headwaters that feed many of the country’s most productive cold-water fisheries. The 2001 rule was designed in part to keep road construction out of the drainages where undisturbed forest soils filter and cool water before it reaches rivers.
In Southeast Alaska’s Tongass National Forest—which contains about 9.3 million roadless acres and is specifically targeted for exclusion from the rule under Executive Order 14153—those intact drainages support populations of Pacific salmon, steelhead, Dolly Varden, and rainbow trout. Outside Alaska, roadless areas serve as headwater refugia for native trout throughout the country. TU has documented that 90 percent of roadless areas in New Hampshire and 64 percent in Michigan provide habitat for native trout.
“The result of this development will be more crowding in our remaining undeveloped areas and less opportunity for quality hunting and fishing,” said Corey Fisher, Trout Unlimited’s public lands policy director.
Roads degrade cold-water fisheries through sediment delivery, temperature increases, and the removal of riparian canopy. The Forest Service already maintains 370,000 miles of roads with a deferred maintenance backlog TU puts at $10.8 billion—and TU has noted that nearly 2 million acres of inventoried roadless areas have already received hazardous fuels treatment under existing exceptions to the rule, undercutting the wildfire argument for full rescission.
What Comes Next
The draft EIS, whenever it arrives, begins a comment period. That period—unlike the 21-day scoping window—is expected to be longer, but USDA has not announced its length or format, including whether public meetings will be part of it. Conservation groups are treating the EIS comment window as the last meaningful opportunity to influence the outcome before the final rule lands later this year.
Anglers who want to track the process can follow the docket at regulations.gov (docket FS-2025-0001) and sign up for Forest Service updates at fs.usda.gov.
