Wyoming Rep. Harriet Hageman used a congressional hearing Tuesday to detail the 24-year history of the 2001 Clinton administration-era federal roadless rule, arguing that U.S. Forest Service employees correctly predicted it would make forest management “impossible."
Her comments came during sharp exchanges over the Trump administration's push to repeal roadless restrictions she says that, among other things, has led to a buildup of dead fuel and historically huge wildfires.
Democratic lawmakers defend the rule as essential protection for intact forests and clean water supplies.
Hageman questioned U.S. Forest Service Chief Tom Schultz during the House Subcommittee on Federal Landshearing, telling the panel she had reviewed the administrative record from the roadless rule's adoption and found that Forest Service employees were among its strongest critics.
“And the reason was because they recognized what was going to happen to our national forests if the roadless rule was actually adopted,” Hageman told the subcommittee.
Hageman said the administrative record contains "literally hundreds, if not thousands, of comments submitted by Forest Service employees saying, ‘Please do not adopt the roadless rule. It will make it impossible for us to actually manage this resource.’"
Democratic Defense
Standing up for the roadless rule, Rep. Jared Huffman, D-California, used his opening statement to defend the roadless rule's environmental and fiscal benefits.
He said ending it is asking “to put millions of acres of national forests literally on the chopping block by rolling back the roadless rule," Huffman said. “The reckless move of doing that would open the floodgates of clear cutting, road building, and mining across some of the last intact undeveloped forests that we have left in this country.
"This is reckless, Mr. Chief.”
Huffman appealed to hunters and anglers, stating, “I'm a fisherman. I spend a lot of time on public lands and waters. And I can say that the roadless areas are essential headwater and backcountry landscapes.
These are the places where development has not yet carved things up and split things apart,” continued Huffman. “They keep ecosystems connected. They safeguard cold water streams for fish and wildlife, provide world-class hunting and fishing opportunities, and supply clean drinking water to numerous American communities."
Wildfire Blame
Hageman connected the roadless rule to current forest conditions, citing ongoing wildfires and forest health problems.
"Since 2001 and the adoption of the roadless rule, we have seen catastrophic forest fires that have been absolutely off the charts," she said. "The insect infestation has been exactly what was predicted by the GAO reports and the Forest Service employees at the time."
The congresswoman provided a specific Wyoming example, describing her recent visit to the Bridger-Teton National Forest where a large fire is burning.
"I was up there a couple of weeks ago, and as I drove through the day before that fire started, I thought, ‘Man, if the fire ever starts in this area, it's going to be an absolute conflagration just looking at the density of the Bridger-Teton National Forest,'" Hageman said. "When I drove back through two days later, I almost couldn't see because there was so much smoke."
Hageman’s own family homestead near Hartville, Wyoming, burned in a wildfire in August 2024.
Economic Impacts
Beyond fire risks, Hageman outlined economic impacts she attributed to reduced forest management under the roadless rule.
"We have escalating housing costs because of a lack of lumber and timber,” she said. "We don't produce domestically produced timber anymore, hardly, because of the roadless rule and the way that our national forests have been managed."
Schultz agreed that local forest planning should guide roadless area management.
"I think they were correct and they were trying to maintain management flexibility and as you said I think the rightful place to make those determinations is in that local forest plan with public input at that level," he said.
The chief confirmed that the agency has identified high wildfire risk areas and noted that “typically, what we see in the roadless areas, since those areas historically have not been managed, insect and disease rates are higher."
Opponents of the roadless rule point to a decline in federal timber harvests from 12 billion board feet annually in the late 1980s to 2.5-3 billion board feet today, which Schultz attributes partly to environmental restrictions following spotted owl protections.
The chief said the Forest Service has identified more than 66 million acres of national forest system lands at high or very high wildfire risk and 78 million acres experiencing insect and disease infestations.
"This is a full-blown wildfire enforced health crisis," Schultz said. "Without action, these conditions are expected to get worse."
Wyoming Timber
In August, the U.S. Commerce Department announced a significant increase on countervailing duties of lumber imports from Canada, jumping the tariff rate to 35%, according to the National Association of Home Builders.
Wyoming’s timber industry hopes to create a local supply of building materials by resurrecting local mills instead of trucking logs to mills in other states.
During fiscal year 2024, U.S. Forest Service timber sales in Wyoming totaled 33.5 million board feet, said Andrea Delgado, deputy regional forester for the Rocky Mountain region.
Sales have reached 30 million board feet so far during fiscal year 2025, she added.
“The United States has an abundance of timber resources that are more than adequate to meet our domestic timber production needs, but federal policies have prevented the full utilization of these resources, hindering effective forest management on our forest systems,” Schultz told the committee Tuesday. "Many, we've seen mill closures, a problem that can be traced directly to lack of federal timber supply and the certainty around that supply.
"Accelerating our active management, reviving the timber industry is one part of wildfire management.”
Schultz ended with, "The department is committed to meeting the president's vision to increase domestic timber production and streamline federal policies to enhance forest management and reduce wildfire risks."
Trump’s vision appears to line up with an approach and philosophy Schultz developed while studying at the University of Wyoming.
David Madison can be reached at david@cowboystatedaily.com.
