BURST
This morning, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced a 15-day extension to the public comment period for its proposal to rescind the Roadless Rule, also known as the Roadless Area Conservation Rule. Americans now have until October 6, 2026, to send in a public comment. More than 125,000 comments have been received so far.
The Roadless Rule is a 25-year-old federal policy that prevents construction in undeveloped tracts of National Forest land, including historic climbing areas such as Wyoming’s Wind River Range. If the USDA’s rescission goes into effect, it will free up logging and road construction on 44.7 million acres of National Forest land, mostly across 10 Western states.
How does the Roadless Rule impact climbers?
Access Fund estimates that rescinding the Roadless Rule will threaten access to more than 10,000 climbing routes. More than 95% of roadless areas are in Alaska, Arizona, California, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming.
Several climbing brands and organizations, including Patagonia, La Sportiva, Black Diamond, REI, Osprey, Fjallraven, The North Face, and Access Fund have signaled their opposition to the USDA’s proposal.
“For 20-plus years, these places have been off-limits to new roads to keep our air and waters clean and our backcountry wild,” wrote Access Fund on August 20, the day that the USDA posted the rescission proposal and a draft environmental impact statement to the federal register.
Access Fund is urging climbers to use their digital form to “flood the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) with comments letting them know that our national forests are worth fighting for.”
The USDA’s main stated reason for rescinding the Roadless Rule is to prevent wildfires. “For too long, outdated restrictions have kept tens of millions of forested acres off-limits to the very treatments that improve forest health and reduce wildfire risk to our communities,” said Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins on August 18. However, on August 20, Firefighters United for Safety, Ethics & Ecology (FUSEE) released a combined statement from several experienced firefighters expressing the opposite conclusion.
“Research has shown that the majority of wildfires are human-caused, and the majority of those fires are ignited within 50 meters of a road,” the FUSEE press release stated. “Expanding road access for human-caused wildfires to ignite will greatly add to the burden, risks, and hazards that are challenging firefighters.”
Which specific climbing areas does the Roadless Rule affect?
A digital map published by Outdoor Alliance reveals that the Roadless Rule currently protects both backcountry climbs and roadside crags on National Forest land. Colorado and Idaho have their own, state-specific versions of the Roadless Rule, which are not affected by the USDA’s action.
The following is a non-exhaustive list of climbing areas, identified by Climbing editors, that will lose protections if the Roadless Rule is repealed:
- The Wind River Range, Wyoming
- Ten Sleep Canyon, Wyoming
- Bighorn National Forest, Wyoming
- Darby Canyon near Grant Teton National Park, Wyoming
- The Needles, California
- Climbs near the Whitney Portal, California
- Little Egypt near Bishop, California
- Upper Park Rock near Monticello, New Mexico
- Ruby Mountains, Nevada
- Portage near Anchorage, Alaska
- The Dikes near Dayton, Washington
- Upper Park Rock, New Mexico
- Little Cottonwood Canyon, Utah
- Ice routes to the west of Mount Washington, New Hampshire
Climbers can submit public comments to the USFS directly or by using Access Fund’s digital form.
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