USDA Announces Steps to Restore Roadless Protections on Tongass National Forest

WASHINGTON, Nov. 19, 2021 — The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) today announced it is taking steps to repeal the 2020 Alaska Roadless Rule and restore protections to more than nine million acres of inventoried roadless areas on the Tongass National Forest. The Alaska Roadless Rule, approved on Oct. 29, 2020, exempted the Tongass from the 2001 Roadless Rule, which prohibited road construction, reconstruction and timber harvest in inventoried roadless areas – with limited exceptions.