On May 19, approximately 35 New England residents gathered at The Church of Christ at Dartmouth College for a public meeting organized by the National Parks Conservation Association, the New Hampshire and Vermont chapters of the Sierra Club and the New England conservation organization Standing Trees to protest the potential rollback of the federal 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule, initiated in June 2025.
The federal rule, which currently protects roughly 300,000 acres of federally managed public land across New England from development, including portions of the White Mountain and Green Mountain National Forests. The rule is currently subject to rollback by the second Trump administration, following a notice of intent issued by the U.S. Forest Service on Aug. 29, 2025.
The rollback of the Roadless Rule would be a “return to local decision-making” about protected forests and grasslands, a U.S. Forest Service spokesperson wrote in an email statement to The Dartmouth.
The rollback process includes “robust public involvement and focus on land management decisions at the right scale,” the agency spokesperson wrote.
The spokesperson added that the Forest Service “hopes” to issue a draft environmental impact statement this spring, followed by a 30-day public comment period. The environmental impact statement and record of decision predicted that the final rule would come in late 2026.
At the May 19 public meeting, Standing Trees executive director Zack Porter, argued for keeping public lands “the way they are” and protecting vulnerable ecosystems.
Porter also criticized the Forest Service for not hosting official public forums during its rollback of the Roadless Rule.
“The Forest Service isn’t gonna hold a single public meeting nationwide as they rescind the Roadless Rule,” Porter said during the panel. “Not a single meeting.”
The Forest Service declined to comment on whether they are holding public meetings.
Sierra Club national forest campaign manager Alex Craven said at the event that removing federal roading restrictions would lead to “logging, mining, extractive industry and development” on formerly protected lands.
“One [reason to oppose road development] is the road itself,” Craven said. “Two is what comes at the end of the road.”
The conservation groups also presented data highlighting the economic and ecological intersections between federal protections and local communities. Northeast regional director for the NPCA Kristen Sykes presented an analysis from the organization that showed approximately 30% of all designated national roadless areas sitting within 30 miles of national park lands — including nearly 800,000 acres along the Appalachian National Scenic Trail corridor, which passes through the town of Hanover.
Sykes also presented data from an economic report by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis showing that outdoor recreation contributed $4.2 billion to New Hampshire’s economy and supported over 33,000 jobs in 2024.
“White Mountain National Forest and the [Appalachian Trail] are critical contributors to New Hampshire’s economy and we absolutely need to defend them,” Sykes said.
In the email statement, the Forest Service spokesperson wrote that individual forest managers will continue to work alongside the proper authorities to make decisions regarding local ecosystem conditions.
“Forest managers will continue to work with Tribes, states and local communities to address local conditions while sustaining forest health and benefits for the public,” the spokesperson wrote.
The Forest Service spokesperson added that the proposed changes would not mandate immediate ground disruption.
“The proposed rulemaking would not compel or authorize immediate ground-disturbing activities,” the spokesperson wrote. “Any future actions would continue to follow the forests plans, comply with federal laws and include environmental review.”
In an interview with The Dartmouth following the May 19 public meeting, Porter said the debate over the Roadless Rule focuses on the long-term biological and public health benefits that undisturbed national forests provide to the New England region.
“[Roadless areas] produce the cleanest water, they store vast amounts of carbon, they’re home to an immense amount of biodiversity and they’re places that we all need to go reconnect with what matters most in this world, to be healthy, sane people,” Porter said.
No members of New Hampshire’s current congressional delegation have co-sponsored the Roadless Area Conservation Act, a bill introduced in 2025 by Rep. Andrea Salinas, D-Ore. in the House of Representatives and Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., in the Senate, to codify the 2001 administrative protections into federal statutory law, according to Porter.
The offices of Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., Rep. Maggie Goodlander, D-N.H. and Rep. Chris Pappas, D-N.H. declined to comment on their decisions not to co-sponsor the legislation.
