The Herbert Glacier is seen, April 23, 2017, near Juneau, Alaska, in the Tongass National Forest. (AP Photo/Becky Bohrer, File)
\n\nALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — The Trump administration announced Tuesday it is moving ahead with plans to rescind a quarter-century-old rule that blocked logging, road building and other development on national forest lands, drawing the ire of environmentalists nationwide.
\n\nThe U.S. Forest Service is filing a proposal that would scrap the so called roadless rule adopted in the last days of Bill Clinton’s presidency in 2001. The agency described the rule as a one-size-fits-all restriction that has frustrated land managers and served as a barrier to reducing wildfire risks in the nation’s forests.
\n\n“Our forests can’t afford another decade of inaction. Across the country, we’ve watched preventable conditions — overgrown stands, insect outbreaks and disease — turn healthy landscapes into tinderboxes,” U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said in a statement.
\n\nScientists say that worsening wildfires are driven by a combination of climate change that warms and dries out forests, less logging and decades of fire suppression that has allowed fuels to build up.
\n\nClinton had signed the rule to safeguard undeveloped national forest land from commercial logging and mineral leasing, with…
Original source: https://apnews.com/business