United States (August 29, 2025) – On August 27, the U.S. Department of Agriculture initiated an official rulemaking process with a Notice of Intent (NOI) to rescind the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule across the United States, including the Tongass Rainforest. The NOI follows the USDA’s announcement in June to eliminate Roadless Rule protections. This process opens a short, 21-day, public comment period that will end on September 19, and calls for public comment on the rulemaking process.

Rescinding the 2001 Roadless Rule jeopardizes 45 million acres of forestlands across 36 states and Puerto Rico, including 9 million acres of the Tongass Rainforest, removing critical environmental safeguards against industrial-scale development such as logging, drilling for oil and gas, and mining.

Existing within the traditional territories of the Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian Peoples, the Tongass has been called “America’s Climate Forest,” for its ability to sequester vast amounts of carbon, and mitigate climate change impacts. Furthermore, it is a backbone for not only food security but also food sovereignty in the region. The Tongass provides habitat for Indigenous peoples’ traditional foods such as deer, moose, salmon, and berries. One study finds that forest-fish from the Tongass make up 1.7 million pounds of fish caught per year.

In 2019, the first Trump administration repealed Roadless Rule protections in the Tongass but was met with public outcry as 96% of nearly half a million comments submitted advocated against the rollback of the Roadless Rule. For over seven years, the Women’s Earth and Climate Action Network (WECAN) has worked with Indigenous women leaders in Alaska to protect the Tongass, including organizing multiple Indigenous Women’s Tongass delegations to Washington, D.C. to advocate for the continuation of the Roadless Rule in the Tongass National Forest. Through public comment and joint advocacy of Indigenous leaders, environmental organizations, small-business owners, and other groups, the Roadless Rule was reinstated in 2023. Now WECAN and other groups are gearing up to defend the Roadless Rule and the Tongass once again.

Please see below statements from the Women’s Earth and Climate Action Network (WECAN) in response to the Notice of Intent:

“The Tongass is not just land to us. It is the birthplace of our people – the fiber of our being. Every part of our culture belongs to this land, so the decision to move forward with the rescission of the Roadless Rule is a direct attack on us and our sovereignty,” said Yolanda Fulmer (Tlingit), WECAN Tongass Representative. “As matriarchs, we have a duty to protect our future generations. We will continue to take action and advocate for the protections of the Roadless Rule because a roadless Tongass is a liveable Tongass for all future generations.”

“Rescinding the 2001 Roadless Rule is an act of violence to the Indigenous peoples who have always called the Tongass Forest home eons before recorded time,” said Wanda Culp, Tlingit activist and Tongass Forest Coordinator for the Women’s Earth and Climate Action Network (WECAN). “The wild Tongass Forest is the foundation of our sovereign cultural way of life, the Forest is a sanctuary, our economy arose from this convoluted land not capable of big 'agriculture'. Tlingit, Haida, Tsimshian tribes thrive here. The political re-repealing of the Roadless Rule today is intended to proceed destructive industrial clearcut logging and mining on US public-owned land. As the original stewards of this region, we say ‘no to more taking’ by big business from public coffers. We can continue to rise in action for a healthy environment of clean air and water for all the Life who call the Tongass Forest home. No more political puppetry. Make the Roadless Rule a law now!”

“As we re-enter this battle to protect our homelands, we must think about how successful the Roadless Rule has been for the last two decades. Before the Roadless Rule protected the Tongass, roads were not for the community, they were for logging. The sawmills led to waste in our rivers and devastated our land. Our people, the original stewards of this land, were left to pick up the pieces,” said Adrien Nichol Lee (Tlingit), WECAN Tongass Representative. “Without Roadless, companies will come to our land, extract our life sources, and leave us with the wreckage. As People of the Forest, People of the Sea, we must push against the rollback of the Roadless Rule because our children’s grandchildren, our climate, and our home rely on its protections.”

“The previous attempt to repeal the Roadless Rule was enmeshed in the interest of corporations and industries that neglected public well-fare and exploited the land for profit. We see the same thing today as the USDA calls for the rescinding of the Roadless Rule,” said Rebekah Sawers (Yupik), WECAN Tongass Representative. “As Indigenous women of the Tongass, we stand with our forest relatives against this decision and call for upholding the Roadless Rule. It is important that this land stays free from development to ensure access to our traditional foods, medicines, and cultural connections. With Roadless, our land has had a chance to start healing from a past of extensive and traumatic logging. The healing must be allowed to continue for the sake of future generations and our global climate.”

“Rescinding the Roadless Rule will leave future generations without the forests and animals that we call family. In order to tell our children that we cared for Mother Earth in the best way we knew how, we must fight to maintain and strengthen Roadless Rule protections,” said Mamie Williams (Tlingit) WECAN Tongass Representative. “In Alaska, we see the effects that the climate crisis and industrial scale deforestation has had for our territories, causing the loss of our glaciers, our trees, and our salmon. It’s like we are watching our way of life die at the hands of corporate and government greed. As the USDA prepares to move forward with policies made without our consent about our traditional homelands— the lands of our ancestors and our grandchildren— we must ask ‘what condition will these policies leave our lands in?’”

“The Tongass National Forest, abundant with diverse plants and animals, and large swaths of old-growth stands, is vital to mitigating the escalating climate and biodiversity crises. With deadly flooding, heat, and fires, now is the time to fight for stronger protections that allow these lands to heal and remain intact, not policies that weaken our defenses,” said Osprey Orielle Lake, Executive Director of the Women’s Earth and Climate Action Network (WECAN). “As home to the Tlingit, Haida, Tsimshian tribes, rescinding the Roadless Rule is a clear threat to Indigenous rights and sovereignty and brings harm to local economies that benefit from a thriving Tongass Rainforest. Without Roadless Rule protections, industrial logging and mining will accelerate climate chaos, destroy vital ecosystems, and harm biodiversity. We must stand against this corporate takeover.”

Background Information

Originally adopted in 2001 by the United States Forest Service, the Roadless Rule has been in effect for the majority of more than two decades as a direct result of immense public support. The Rule received more than 1.6 million submitted comments, and included more than 600 public hearings. The Roadless Rule currently protects roughly 45 million acres of National forest lands, including The Tongass forest, preventing roadbuilding in these areas.

The Tongass Rainforest of Alaska is the largest U.S. national forest and has been called 'America’s climate forest' due to its unsurpassed ability to sequester carbon and mitigate climate impacts. Even with a destructive history of industrial logging, the Tongass still contains the largest remaining tracts of temperate old-growth rainforest in the world, and as such, the Tongass is a vital solution to the climate and biodiversity crises.

Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian peoples are the original stewards of the Tongass Rainforest and as such, they have safeguarded these ancient forests for thousands of years and continue to do so today. Rooted to this land is their food, medicine, cultural identity, and traditional knowledge. In early July 2025, Tlingit and Haida issued a formal letter expressing concern over USDA’s decision to rescind the Roadless Rule without consultation with tribal nations.

Also providing irreplaceable wildlife habitat, the Tongass is a refuge for vitally diverse species of plants and animals. Alexander Archipelago wolves, Haida ermine, Sitka black-tailed deer, five different species of wild Pacific salmon and more rely on the mature and old-growth trees and freshwater streams within the Tongass. A healthy and intact Tongass also supports a strong Southeast Alaskan economy as tourism and small businesses rely on the biodiversity found within the ancient forests of the Tongass. Contributing $1 billion to Southeast Alaska’s economy per year, the Tongass Rainforest of Alaska accounts for 26% of sustainable occupations in the region and is home to over 73,000 residents across 35 communities.