Donald Trump this month announced plans to rescind a landmark rule that has protected old-growth forests in the US for 25 years. If finalized, the rollback is expected to benefit the companies that Tom Schultz, chief of the US Forest Service, represented in his previous roles as a timber industry lobbyist and executive, according to research by consumer advocacy non-profit Public Citizen.<\/p>\n
The Roadless Area Conservation Rule, more commonly known as the \u201croadless rule\u201d, was adopted in 2001 to limit development in roughly 45m acres of national forest. Industry interests<\/a> and Republican representatives<\/a> have long lobbied for the rule\u2019s rescission<\/a>, which would open up those swaths of untouched land to road construction, drilling and logging.<\/p>\n In a statement, Schultz described<\/a> the move as \u201cthe best way to restore the balance, reduce wildfire risk, and secure the long-term health of our forests and neighboring communities\u201d. But studies suggest it could put 400 threatened and endangered species at risk<\/a> and imperil ecosystems.<\/p>\n Industry interests will be the main beneficiaries of the change, advocates fear.<\/p>\n In an emailed statement, a Forest Service spokesperson, who did not provide their name, noted that Schultz had also held positions in Idaho and Montana government.<\/p>\n \u201cChief Schultz\u2019s appointment reflects the administration\u2019s recognition that the Forest Service\u2019s current challenges require leadership with broad federal land management experience, not just internal tenure,\u201d the person said.<\/p>\n Schultz is the first-ever Forest Service chief who did not previously work within the agency itself. Before Trump tapped him for the job, he served as president of the Federal Forest Resource Coalition, a trade association representing companies that purchase timber from the federal government, and was also vice-president of resources and government affairs at Idaho Forest Group, a major lumber manufacturer.<\/p>\n Tom Schultz, chief of the US Forest Service, in Washington DC on 13 May. Photograph: Bloomberg\/Getty Images<\/p>\n He is one of dozens of former extractive industry insiders Trump has placed in key environmental positions. Energy secretary Chris Wright was CEO of fracking company Liberty Energy, while interior official Tyler Hassen was an oil executive. Forty-three former fossil-fuel employees and 29 former corporate executives held administration positions, an October analysis<\/a> from Public Citizen and corporate watchdog Revolving Door Project found.<\/p>\n Schultz has long been critical of the roadless rule. As it was being considered in 2000, he said<\/a>: \u201cIt\u2019s going to be very difficult to actually generate revenue from state trust lands that could be encompassed within a roadless designation.\u201d<\/p>\n The American Forest Resource Council (AFRC), a timber industry trade association on the west coast that includes the Idaho Forest Group<\/a>, has recently directly advocated for the rescission of the roadless rule. In comments<\/a> to the federal government last year, the lobbying group said the \u201cone-size-fits-all\u201d policy unnecessarily prevents \u201cactive forest management\u201d \u2013 intentionally thinning forests through practices including logging \u2013 which it says is the best way to mitigate wildfire risk.<\/p>\n Since his appointment, Schultz has echoed these calls. \u201cActive forest management is not an option. It\u2019s essential,\u201d he said in the announcement<\/a> of the proposal to rescind the roadless rule, which also referred to the policy as \u201cone-size-fits-all\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cActive forest management is central to the Forest Service\u2019s multi-use mission \u2013 not an industry agenda,\u201d the Forest Service spokesperson said.<\/p>\n In a statement, Nick Smith, spokesperson for the AFRC, said: \u201cThere is broad bipartisan support for increasing forest health treatments \u2013 thinning, prescribed fire, and even logging \u2013 to reduce the size and severity of wildfires and make forests more resilient to climate change.\u201d<\/p>\n A recent analysis of the Forest Service\u2019s own data<\/a> found that wildfires were nearly three times as likely to start near roads, raising questions about the administration\u2019s claim that expanding road access will reduce wildfire risk, said Lois Parshley, climate research director at Public Citizen.<\/p>\n \u201cBut from the industry\u2019s perspective, it will also open up new possibilities for logging,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Asked about Parshley\u2019s concern, the Forest Service spokesperson said that repealing the roadless rule \u201callows safer use and maintenance of existing roads that first responders have long said they need to reach fires quickly\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cForest\u2011treatment science is clear: thinning plus prescribed fire reduces wildfire severity by more than 60% \u2013 and up to 72% compared to untreated areas,\u201d they said. \u201cAccess enables treatment; without access, prevention and response suffer. Gates and seasonal closures can be used to manage public traffic while preserving routes that firefighters and forest managers may need.\u201d<\/p>\n The AFRC\u2019s comments say that \u201cstrategically placed and maintained roads are essential for safe and effective wildfire response\u201d, and that in \u201cnearly every major wildfire over the past 15\u201320 years\u201d, the Forest Service has identified a lack of road access as a key barrier to effective response, Parshley said. That argument also appears in Schultz\u2019s rationale for repealing the rule, she noted. In the administration\u2019s announcement, he said the roadless rule \u201chas frustrated land managers and served as a barrier to action \u2013 prohibiting road construction, which has limited wildfire suppression and active forest management\u201d.<\/p>\n Smith of the AFRC said that \u201cmillions of roadless acres have burned across the west since the rule\u2019s adoption in 2001.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cFederal lands are far more likely to burn than private lands, which typically have far more roads,\u201d he said. \u201cAccording to the congressional budget office<\/a>, a wildfire on federal land is on average five times the size of one on nonfederal land nearby.\u201d<\/p>\n Critics dispute the logic that the roadless rule is good for wildfire management, arguing that roads can increase the risk of human-caused fires.<\/p>\n Since Schultz came into the Forest Service in February 2025, the American Forest Resource Council has spent more than $210,000<\/a> advocating to expand harvesting in national forests, lobbying records show. Meanwhile, the Idaho Forest Group increased its spending on lobbying in 2026<\/a> and reported<\/a> advocating to support \u201cefforts to advance forest management\u201d, including with the agency now run by its former executive, Parshley found.<\/p>\n Smith of the AFRC claimed that \u201cthe amount of money AFRC spends lobbying Congress and federal agencies in support of policies to improve the health of federal forests and nearby rural communities is dwarfed in comparison to the many anti-forestry NGOs.\u201d<\/p>\n Idaho is exempt from the roadless rule; it has its own regulations on roadless areas developed with the federal government. But the proposal to kill the roadless rule is just one industry-backed change to forestry that the Trump administration has put forth. As the head of the Federal Forest Resource Coalition, Schultz in July 2022 delivered testimony<\/a> before Congress in which he suggested roadless areas were limiting the industry, saying: \u201cnearly half of the National Forest System [is] off limits to management.\u201d<\/p>\n Though he did not call to overturn the policy specifically, he advocated allowing states to manage more Forest Service timber sales, expanding exemptions from environmental review processes, and changing stewardship contracting rules to support logging and wood-processing infrastructure.<\/p>\n The Trump administration has since adopted or advanced<\/a> each of those proposals, Parshley found<\/a> in a report earlier this year. And Schultz has directly helped implement them, she found. For instance, in December 2025 he personally signed<\/a> an agreement with Idaho\u2019s governor to double federal timber sales from the state\u2019s national forests.<\/p>\n \u201cThat directly benefits his former employer the Idaho Forest Group\u201d, she said.<\/p>\n Idaho Forest Group has been contacted for comment.<\/p>\n Under Schultz, the Forest Service has ramped up timber sales. In June, he told senators<\/a> that the agency had exceeded its timber-sale target. He has also overseen a historic and widely criticized structural reorganization of his agency, moving the agency\u2019s headquarters from the nation\u2019s capital to Salt Lake City, eliminating regional offices and staff and shifting authority over forests to states.<\/p>\n