Roadless Area Conservation Act of 2025

This bill would lock in long-term protections for “inventoried roadless areas” in our National Forests. It tells the Forest Service not to allow new road building, road rebuilding, or logging in places where the existing federal Roadless Rule already forbids those activities. The goal is to protect clean drinking water, wildlife habitat, and outdoor recreation, while keeping many multiple uses in place and not changing access to lands outside these areas. Many roadless areas still allow activities like hiking, hunting, fishing, and even some mechanized travel, such as biking, because they are not the same as wilderness areas.

Supporters point to real-world benefits: healthy watersheds that provide drinking water to tens of millions of people and can save communities millions in water treatment costs; strong fish and game habitat; and recreation-based local economies. They also note that wildfires are almost twice as likely in roaded areas than in roadless ones, and that the Forest Service already faces a costly backlog maintaining its 368,102 miles of existing roads. Keeping roadless areas protected can reduce new maintenance needs while still allowing hydropower development to continue.

Key points

• Who is affected: People who rely on clean water, outdoor users (hikers, hunters, anglers), nearby communities, and Tribal and Indigenous groups with sacred sites in these areas.
• What changes: Makes the Roadless Rule protections permanent in law by barring new roads and logging where the Rule already prohibits them; does not add new limits beyond that or change access to lands outside these areas.
• Why it matters: Protects water and wildlife, limits the spread of invasive species, supports recreation economies, and helps focus firefighting and fuel treatments where they have the most impact.