Environmental groups, hikers and mountain bikers are pushing back against a Trump Administration proposal to remove protections from remote, wild areas within the national forests that could invite development such as logging, mining or oil drilling.
The proposal to remove a 25-year-old “roadless rule” overlay from over 4 million acres in California forests, including parts of the Angeles and Cleveland national forests, has drawn outrage from opponents at town halls in LA and Orange counties, who say the plan will poison a local source of drinking water, damage pristine habitat, threaten endangered species and erase beautiful forest vistas enjoyed by millions of Southern Californians.
“The Roadless Rule is a promise that some places are valuable precisely because they remain wild. Not every acre of our public lands has to be open to roads, or to drilling or extraction; this would open them to the potential of logging and mining,” said Juana Torres, who chairs the Forest Committee of the Angeles Chapter of the Sierra Club and has 20 years experience in advancing conservation in the Angeles National Forest and the San Gabriel Mountains National Monument.
More than 100 people came to a town hall at an Elks Lodge in Duarte on Monday, May 18, including Torres. It was one of many held throughout the state in response to U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins actions to rescind the Roadless Area Conservation Rule that protects habitat and wildlife on 58 million acres of remote sections of national forests by blocking permanent roads and development activity.
Rollins has called the 2001 President Clinton-era rule “a bureaucratic barrier to action,” and one that creates neglect and even makes parts of national forests more prone to wildfires, while making it “nearly impossible to establish a reliable timber supply.”
Wildfire scientists, conservationists and others disagreed with the argument that building roads into the upper reaches of California’s and other western state’s national forests would aid in wildfire prevention. In fact, about 30 scientists from western universities said in a letter to Rollins that studies show the opposite is true. Namely, that most wildfires are four times more likely to ignite within 50 meters of roads.
In a letter to Rollins from Rep. Andrea Salinas, D-Oregon, and Rep. Yassamin Ansari, D-Arizona, they wrote the U.S. Forest Service, which is under the USDA, said a threat of wildfires caused by roadless zones is not true. They said the Forest Service had concluded that building roads into what are known as “Inventoried Roadless Areas (IRAs)” actually would increase the chance of human-caused wildfires by introducing more vehicles and people — often the cause of wildfires.
A study from the Pacific Biodiversity Institute found over 90% of wildfires occurred within a half mile of a road.
Unofficial accounts of how the recent Sandy fire started, still burning in the hills of Sylmar, were attributed to a tractor that hit a rock, causing a spark that ignited dry brush.
The forests across the country managed by the USFS can’t maintain the 368,102 miles of roads in the forests today, the members of Congress wrote. This has left a deferred maintenance backlog that costs nearly $6 billion. Adding more roads is a “massive waste of taxpayer money,” they wrote.
A firefighter manager in Lake Tahoe told CalMatters in a report in June 2025 that the small part of nearby national forest areas that are roadless can be reached through helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft dropping water and fire retardant. Building roads would not help with fire suppression.
Locally, it’s unlikely that logging could return to the Angeles National Forest, since the commercial logging era of the mid-1800s ended in 1950. A USFS historical analysis of the Angeles’ history and geography said the area was not prone to logging since it was dominated by chaparral. However, timber was used to build the missions in San Fernando and San Gabriel.
After gold was discovered in 1842 in Placerita Canyon (near modern Santa Clarita), mining activity — mostly small mines gouged out of the slopes — left scars from mining that produced mixed results. But most mining ventures were inactive by 1896, according to the historical report.
Still, conservationists and those who recreate in the forests speaking at the Duarte meeting worry that mineral strip-mining operations or oil drilling or roads built by utility companies could pop up in out-of-the-way IRA areas of the Angeles, damaging what are sensitive areas specially protected by the U.S. Forest Service roadless rule. The groups represented included: Sierra Club, CalWild, COFEM, Nature For All, Wilderness Society, the Xaapchivitam Clan of Native Americans, League of Conservation Voters and the Concerned Off-Road Bicyclists Association.
“When people think about wilderness or roadless areas, they think of far away places like Alaska or Yosemite (National Park),” Torres told the group in Duarte. “We are lucky. We don’t have to drive across the country or go searching for spectacular roadless landscapes. They are here, in the Angeles National Forest, which spans the entire width of Los Angeles County.
“Roadless areas (in national forests) are not just empty land waiting for a purpose. They already have a purpose. They give us water and provide a home for animals and plants,” she concluded.
Jose Sanchez, an organizer with the Council of Mexican Federations in North America, known as COFEM, brought others to the meeting so they could speak out against eliminating protections from the IRA portions of the Angeles. He said many members are Latino mothers of LA County who grew up not having access to the forest but who want their children to experience nature untouched by humans.
“I myself, growing up, didn’t know of the advantages of going to public lands. Now, thank God, I know and I bring my daughter there,” Sanchez said in an interview. Others spoke of mental health advantages, as well as the benefits of hiking as exercise to help the body’s heart and circulatory system.
The vast, Angeles National Forest spans 700,000 acres of wilderness forming the northern boundary of Los Angeles County and is known as “LA’s backyard.” The Angeles gets about 3.5 million to 4.6 million visitors annually, more than most national parks.
The amount of land designated as roadless, or IRAs, represents only a fraction of the entire forest lands in the state — about 4 million acres. In the Angeles, there are 95,000 acres of IRAs, out of 700,000 acres. These roadless areas are described as “undeveloped backcountry tracts.”
Court battles through the last 10 years have often centered on roadless areas within the Tongass National Forest in Alaska, which opponents say the Trump Administration is targeting for timber and mining interests. It is singled out in a statement from the USFS. Also, the USFS statement on its website points to the 2001 rule establishing “prohibitions on road construction, road reconstruction and timber harvests on nearly 60 million acres of national forests and grasslands.”
However, today, the roadless rule pertains to 45 million acres, mostly because federal lands in Colorado and Idaho are exempt from the proposed rule elimination, according to a statement from Rollins.
The “roadless rule” on certain lands helps to “preserve their ecological integrity and wilderness character,” the USFS wrote on its website. Also, while building permanent roads are not allowed, these areas are “highly prized for hiking, wildlife viewing and primitive recreation,” according to the USFS.
However, in the USDA statement, U.S. Forest Service Chief Tom Schultz favored eliminating the roadless rule, saying it would grant local forest managers the authority to make decisions on tree clearing to reduce the chance of wildfires. The USDA also said getting rid of the rule aligns aligns with a Trump executive order unleashing deregulation and “to get rid of overcomplicated, burdensome barriers that hamper American business and innovation.”
The IRAs are only found in the most remote areas of the local forests. Also, there are exceptions for roads that allow emergency vehicles. Most prevent all roads, while some versions of IRAs make exceptions. In most cases, any roads built must be removed once their use is fulfilled.
“They can be temporary roads but they don’t allow roads to be built for a logging or mining company,” said Steve Messer, founder of the California Mountain Biking Association who has repaired trails in the Angeles for 40 years and ridden his bike on many dirt trails through roadless areas.
One of the main entrance roads into the Angeles, Highway 2, also known as Angeles Crest Highway in La Cañada Flintridge, brings visitors to campgrounds, lookouts and trailheads. Messer said one only has to drive this road for a short while to see the unspoiled wilderness to the north out of their windshield.
“What makes those views incredible? Those intact landscapes,” he told the gathering in Duarte. “These views are stunning not because of what is there, but because what isn’t there.”
A list of roadless areas and their benefits, cobbled together from USFS maps and from the conservation group CalWild and others, includes:
• Fish and Castaic canyons in the northern reach of the Angeles, north of Santa Clarita. These are some of the largest remaining undeveloped regions in the forest. CalWild says the IRAs there help protect endangered species, including: the arroyo toad, least Bell’s vireo, California condor, Southwestern willow flycatcher and unarmored three-spined stickleback.
• Areas north and south of the San Gabriel Wilderness and Sheep Mountain Wilderness, both specially designated wild areas in the Angeles National Forest north of Azusa. IRA designations vary here, from no roads allowed to some roads allowed. Highway 2 does not go through both wilderness areas, and does not cross into the majority of IRA acreage that acts as a buffer for the two wilderness areas. The Nelson’s bighorn sheep live on cliffs in their wilderness area. A gap in Highway 39 long-closed due to mudslides has been held up due to biologists’ concerns that cars would strike the sheep’s offspring, which use the car-free area for spawning.
• The Trabuco-Hot Springs IRA in the Cleveland National Forest in Riverside and Orange counties supports popular trails leading to San Juan Creek and Ortega Falls. It is also home to a large alder tree grove and supports endangered species, such as the arroyo toad.
• In the San Bernardino National Forest, CalWild lists: Middle Fork Lytle Creek as a natural waterway flowing through the IRA, supporting a wild trout fishery as well as Nelson’s bighorn sheep; Deep Creek, a popular spot for day hikers located on the north slope of the San Bernardino Mountains that has deep pools and hot springs and is intersected by the Pacific Crest National Scenic Trail; Pyramid Peak in Riverside County, home to the endangered Peninsular bighorn sheep and also used by members of the Cahuilla Tribe to collect traditional food and medicine plants.
Roadless areas help supply drinking water to at least 124 million Americans in more than 3,400 communities across 33 states, according to roadless.org, a site created by opponents to the USDA proposal to rescind the rule.
Torres said she and her daughter enjoy hiking in the Fish Canyon/Castaic IRA. “My daughter should be able to visit wild places close to home, without seeing roads, mining or logging,” she told the group.
Torres and Messer invited those in attendance to write comments on cards that they are collecting to send to the USDA. Also, public testimony was recorded and will also be sent.
On Aug. 29, Rollins placed a notice of intent to change the rule in the Federal Register. The comment period ended Sept. 19, lasting 21 days. The opponents website, roadless.org, said about 600,000 comments were received and 99.8% opposed repealing the rule. Once the draft Environmental Impact Statement is released, a new comment window will be set up.
Messer said most comment periods for environmental impact reports are 45 to 90 days. “This administration is shortening the comment period down,” he said. “Compressed timelines don’t give us much time to analyze what is being put out.” The EIS could be released as early as the end of this month, he said. The conservation and recreation groups are collecting comments to send to USDA once the next comment period is opened, he said.
A town hall was held in Rockland, CA near Sacramento last week. On May 7, one was held at O’Neill Regional Park in Trabuco Canyon in Orange County. A town hall will be held in Ojai in Santa Barbara County on May 27 and in Ventura on May 28. Comments also can be left on the roadless.org site.
The USDA did not respond to questions about the date of the next release or the comment period length.
“We just want to make sure our voices are heard,” Messer said.