A pending Trump administration proposal would roll back the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule, which prevents road construction and timber harvesting on millions of acres of federal forest land, including approximately 11,000 acres in the Shawnee National Forest.
The proposal to rescind the popular rule triggered a harsh rebuke from environmental activists and nearly 170 members of Congress, the latter of whom signed a letter last week urging the Trump administration to abandon the plan.
The Shawnee — the crown jewel of Illinois’ wild lands and lynchpin of the southern Illinois tourism industry — contains six inventoried roadless areas tucked among the forest’s sandstone bluffs, canyons and wetlands.
The largest swaths of land that could become vulnerable to logging and drilling if rules are relaxed are 6,200 acres in Burke Branch, which lies roughly a half mile from a new logging project and straddles Pope and Massac counties. The second largest are 3,800 acres at Ripple Hollow near the communities of McClure and Jonesboro in the far western portion of the Shawnee. Overall, the inventoried roadless area still comprises less than 4% of the forest’s vast 280,000 acres, according to the Forest Service.
United States Forest Service Chief Tom Schultz is billing the proposal as the “best way to restore the balance, reduce wildfire risk, and secure the long-term health of our forests,” according to an Aug. 18 statement. U.S. Department of Agriculture officials also celebrated the proposed change as a way to return forest management to local forestry officials and tribal governments.
Critics, however, argue rescinding the rule instead could result in a massive land grab that would benefit private logging and drilling industries — including the timber companies that Schultz previously worked for as a lobbyist and executive before his appointment as the nation’s chief Forest Service official.
