The U.S. Forest Service is trying to erase one of the strongest protections our national forests have ever had. The Roadless Rule has kept new roads, drilling, and logging out of roughly 45 million acres of forest for 25 years. Now the agency wants to tear it down.

The person leading that effort is Forest Service Chief Tom Schultz, who spent years working for the timber industry before taking the job, including as president of a trade group representing companies that buy federal timber and as an executive at a major lumber manufacturer. According to research from the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen, the companies Schultz used to represent are positioned to directly benefit if this rule disappears. In December 2025, Schultz personally signed an agreement to double timber sales from Idaho's national forests, benefiting his former employer.

Studies suggest the rollback could endanger as many as 400 species already classified as threatened or endangered, and could unravel ecosystems that took centuries to form. Officials say new roads will help crews fight wildfires faster, but a separate review of the Forest Service's wildfire data found that fires start near roads almost three times as often as they do in areas without them.

These forests belong to all of us, not to the companies with the clearest path to Tom Schultz's office. Once roads and logging move into untouched wilderness, there's no putting it back.

Sign the petition to stop the rollback of the Roadless Rule and keep America's last untouched national forests intact.