US plans to rescind roadless protections for national forests

THE Trump administration has announced plans to rescind a decades-old rule that protects nearly 59 million acres of pristine national forest land, including 9 million acres in Alaska's Tongass National Forest.

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This controversial move, revealed during a meeting of Western governors in New Mexico, has ignited a fierce debate over environmental conservation and the future of logging in the US.

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins stated that the administration would begin the process of rolling back protections for these roadless areas, which have been safeguarded since the late 1990s. If the rollback survives potential court challenges, it could open vast swaths of untouched land to logging and road construction.

According to the Agriculture Department, this would affect approximately 30 percent of the land in the National Forest System, including 92 percent of Tongass, one of the last remaining intact temperate rainforests in the world. Critics of the rollback have expressed deep concern over the environmental implications of such a decision.

Environmental groups have condemned the administration's plans and vowed to challenge the decision in court.