00:02This morning, the Trump administration is moving to lift decades-old protections on more than 44 million acres of national
00:10forest,
00:11clearing the way for new roads, logging, and other development to be considered.
00:15The Forest Service is proposing to scrap the 2001 Roadless Rule,
00:20which for 25 years has restricted road building and logging in national forest areas that don't currently have roads.
00:28More than 95 percent of the land affected is in 10 western states, including Alaska, California, Montana, Oregon, and Washington.
00:36Colorado and Idaho would not be affected because they have their own roadless rules.
00:42Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins says the rule has made it harder to clear overgrowth and other fire hazards
00:49because forest managers cannot easily get into some of these areas.
00:52In a statement, she said,
00:54For too long, outdated restrictions have kept tens of millions of forested acres off limits to the very treatments that
01:02improve forest health
01:03and reduce wildfire risk to our communities.
01:06But some fire expert ecologists say more roads could actually increase the risk of fire
01:12by bringing more people into places that are now largely undisturbed.
01:16The change would not automatically open all 44 million acres to logging.
01:21Those decisions would be left to local forest managers.
01:24This is still a proposal.
01:26The Forest Service is taking public comment through September 21st at regulations.gov.
01:34Sometimes the most interesting part of a story never makes it into the headlines.
01:39That's why we created Unbiased Updates Off Script,
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02:08Unbiased Updates Off Script, Thursdays at Straight Arrow.
02:12Unbiased Updates Off Script with SNetR Russell.
02:12Unbiased Updates Off Script, Thursdays at this point is in summary of theania.
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