America's last wild national forests are one signature away from losing the protection that has kept them intact for 25 years. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has proposed rescinding the 2001 Roadless Rule, a move that would eliminate protections across roughly 45 million acres of forest and allow new roads across up to 70,000 miles of waterways.

A new analysis from the Center for Biological Diversity finds the rollback would put more than 400 threatened and endangered species at risk, including grizzly bears, wolverines, salmon, and the Mexican spotted owl. It would also endanger 7.4 million acres of the habitat those species depend on, plus nearly 1,800 miles of streams and rivers that are currently protected.

The damage would not stop at wildlife. New roads and logging bring erosion that clogs waterways with sediment, raising water temperatures and smothering the streams fish depend on to spawn. Roadless national forests also supply clean drinking water to millions of people, from Sitka, Alaska to Albuquerque, New Mexico to Atlanta, Georgia. As Randi Spivak, public lands policy director at the Center for Biological Diversity, put it, "Bulldozing more roads through them will mean dirtier water, fragmented wildlife habitat and greater wildfire risk."

This would be one of the largest rollbacks of public lands protections in American history, touching national forests in 37 states. The public has only until September 21, 2026 to comment, but public comment alone will not stop this rule from moving forward.

Sign the petition demanding the USDA withdraw its proposal and keep the Roadless Rule in place, before more of America's wild forests, clean water, and endangered wildlife are lost for good.