The Trump administration is rolling back a landmark conservation rule from the Clinton era that prevents roadbuilding and logging on roughly 58 million acres of federal forest and wildlands.
The announcement rescinding the 2001 Roadless Rule comes as the Forest Service is under orders by President Trump to increase logging and thinning in forests to address the wildfire threat. Environmentalists have already indicated they’ll sue to prevent its reversal, however.
After Clinton enacted the rule at the end of his term in 2001, it effectively created de facto wilderness protections for scores of forests in the West and Alaska.
Demand is irrelevant. We’re talking about an administration who is trying to bring back coal despite no one wanting them to other than those directly profiting off it. They seem to think that anything bad for the environment is a good thing for business. Trump signed an EO back in March demanding increased timber production and this is just him getting back to that.
Cutting logging roads into forests is what logging companies do. They certainly have the ability to do so already so I’m not sure what you mean by that.
Demand is completely relevant. Who are you going to sell all this timber to if there is no demand? If you can’t sell it, then you’re just wasting money producing it.