{"id":468031,"date":"2026-09-18T15:38:49","date_gmt":"2026-09-18T15:38:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/468031\/"},"modified":"2026-09-18T15:38:49","modified_gmt":"2026-09-18T15:38:49","slug":"deadline-extended-to-weigh-in-on-discussion-about-more-roads-in-federal-forests-orange-county-register","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/468031\/","title":{"rendered":"Deadline extended to weigh in on discussion about more roads in federal forests \u2013 Orange County Register"},"content":{"rendered":"

The public has until Oct. 6 to comment on a federal administration proposal to eliminate the Roadless Area Conservation Rule<\/a>, a regulation in effect for more than 25 years that has prevented roads through 60 million acres of National Forest System lands for recreation and habitat protection<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The rule, adopted in 2001 by President Bill Clinton\u2019s administration, blocks road building for logging and other access and development.<\/p>\n

Upon word that President Donald Trump\u2019s administration was considering the repeal, environmentalists statewide have been sounding the alarm<\/a> that it could open up much of Southern California\u2019s wildlands to roads.<\/p>\n

The rollback could impact the biggest undeveloped stretch of Orange County in the Trabuco District Area of the Cleveland National Forest, wildlands in the San Gabriel Mountains National Monument in Los Angeles County, the San Jacinto Mountains and Pyramid Peak, Palm Canyon Creek in the Inland Empire, and the San Bernardino National Forest near Big Bear.<\/p>\n

Administration officials call the Roadless Rule \u201coutdated\u201d and say it runs counter to the U.S. Forest Service mandate to protect the natural areas by making land management and wildfire prevention difficult. U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins has called it a \u201cbureaucratic barrier to action\u201d and something that makes it nearly impossible to establish a reliable timber supply.<\/p>\n

Rallies have been held throughout Southern California in recent months to alert the public to the proposal. In California, environmental groups argue the Roadless Rule has protected 4 million acres from logging, mining and other destructive human impacts.<\/p>\n

The nonprofit CalWild points out that roadless areas provide critical clean water for downstream communities and farms. Rivers that flow through these areas also provide habitat for at-risk fish and wildlife, along with recreational activities for fishing and whitewater boating.<\/p>\n

As early of this week, almost 170,000 people have written to the U.S. Department of Agriculture portal for regulations, <\/a>and the public comment period was recently extended from Sept. 21 to Oct. 6.<\/p>\n

When the rule was enacted in 2001, it followed 600 public meetings and 1.6 million comments. Getting loud now could be persuasive, said Melanie Schlotterbeck, a conservation consultant with environmental group Hills for Everyone.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone is taking to social media like I am,\u201d she said of a recent direct-to-camera video she posted in which she talks about the importance of commenting. \u201cIt\u2019s gained a lot of traction with people sharing it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cClearly we\u2019ve been heard because they extended the deadline,\u201d she added. \u201cEveryone is upset and is coming out of the woodwork. It\u2019s not only environmentalists, but off-highway vehicle people are also considering supporting the Roadless Rule.\u201d<\/p>\n

Results were recently released from a poll by North Star Opinion Research commissioned by the Resources Legacy Fund that queried 400 voters in mid-June living within the recently redrawn 40th Congressional District, which includes foothills and open lands stretching from Mission Viejo to Murrieta. Schlotterbeck points to the polling, which reported that 88% of respondents agreed on the importance of valuing public lands and said they used them several times a year, and were more likely to support candidates \u2014 no matter their political leanings \u2014 who supported access to public lands.<\/p>\n

The poll said 65% of respondents reported visiting public lands at least a few times a year, with 24% visiting them at least once a month. They visit a variety of lands: 74% visit national parks, 49% visit national forests, 19% visit BLM lands, and 18% visit wildlife refuges.<\/p>\n

\u201cSouthland residents highly value their public lands as the pressures of urban life and urban infrastructure limit opportunities to enjoy nature,\u201d Schlotterbeck said. \u201cOpportunities for recreation are both limited and prized by recreational enthusiasts.\u201d<\/p>\n

Among those are\u00a0Orange County mountain bikers, who are also rallying the public to comment.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are strongly opposed to the rollback and all attempts to take away our access to our backcountry,\u201d said David Browning, Orange County Mountain Bike Association president.<\/p>\n

If the protective rule is rolled back, Schlotterbeck and others say they worry roads could be constructed across 18.2 million acres and temporary roads could be forged across\u00a0another 11.3 million acres. The Roadless Area Conservation Rule currently protects these swaths of wild forests, including 4 million acres in California, from logging, mining and other destructive human activities.<\/p>\n

If roads are built, opponents say their impacts could damage watersheds and increase fire risk, threatening wildlife and outdoor recreation.<\/p>\n

\u201cRoads are known ignition sources for the majority of fires,\u201d Schlotterbeck said. \u201cWhen you add roads to wilderness areas, you\u2019re adding the likelihood that fires are going to start.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Rollins\u2019 point has been that fire danger is elevated in the wildlands because a lack of road access has left backcountry areas susceptible to fire because they have been \u201cunable to be properly managed for fire risk.\u201d<\/p>\n

While public comment is being taken on the administration\u2019s proposal, two Congressional lawmakers, Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-WA, and Rep. Andrea Salinas, D-OR, are sponsoring the Roadless Area Conservation Act to codify the Roadless Rule as federal law.<\/p>\n

Although the proposed legislation would preserve flexibility for the Trump administration and future presidents to allow the Forest Service to build roads or manage vegetation in specific situations, its broad goal would be to keep the 60 million acres currently protected as pristine as possible.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would support that,\u201d Schlotterbeck said.<\/p>\n

Find out more about the proposal and how to submit public comment at regulations.gov<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The public has until Oct. 6 to comment on a federal administration proposal to eliminate the Roadless Area…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":468032,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,165,164,7,179,643,100,1727,420,136],"class_list":["post-468031","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-anaheim","tag-anaheim","tag-anaheim-headlines","tag-anaheim-news","tag-california","tag-community","tag-environment","tag-news","tag-outdoors","tag-things-to-do","tag-top-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468031","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=468031"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468031\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/468032"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=468031"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=468031"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=468031"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}